Remember When: Skate America 2019 Pairs Short

The Ice Sweeps were very Vegas in costume.

Continuing with this weekend of whining - today's blog post will be a series of four so that I don't completely go over kill in one giant blog post. Kudos to anyone who is reading, at this point I'm not doing much with content other than just photo dumping and I do apologize. I should have posted these photos a year ago and I never got around to it (to be fair I didn't finish editing these photos until mid 2020). 

The great thing about Skate America is it's a quick weekend event. Two days of competition bookended with an official practice and an exhibition gala. I had never been to an international event - the only other skating competitions I've been to are US Nationals in 2005, 06, 08, and 18 - so it was a new and very enjoyable experience. The arena was smaller than what I'm used to for events, but the staff were incredibly friendly. The seats were great for spectating. We met some awesome fans (and one not so awesome one, but it ended up being highly entertaining anyway). Made some new friends.

And the skating was amazing. I don't shoot photos for any reason other than for my own enjoyment. I like to challenge myself into getting the right shot. The lighting in the arena worked really well for cameras and of course once the TV lights come on it's perfect.

The first discipline was pairs. It was a small field and not many of the big names were there other than those from the US (which if you're a figure skating fan you know it's the weak link for Team USA). Didn't matter to me as it was still a great event and I found some new pairs to follow. I'll try to keep the photos to 1-2 per pair, but I make no promises. It's like choosing between your children... ya just shouldn't! (As always, click the "read more" to see all the photos under the cut, and check out my gallery for all of my photos from Skate America 2019.)

Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI - GREAT BRITAIN

No Clowning Around in Pairs Short Program

Last night kicked off Olympic Figure Skating in high style. What a night of pairs skating! It seems like forever since we've been treated with a non-splatfest!

It's no surprise that Shen and Zhao are leaders after the short, nor is it surprising that Savchenko and Szolkowy are closely behind them. Two incredibly different programs and both superbly skated.

The biggest controversy surrounding last night, however, was the seemingly overscoring of Canada's Dube & Davison. With Jessica's fall on their side by side jumps and an obvious stumble by Bryce in the footwork. While the judging system is supposed to be more fair, and harder to play with to get a desired outcome, it seems the judges were extremely forgiving at an event where most teams made no big mistakes.

The main argument in favor of Jessica and Bryce's score is the fact that their base score before skating -based on the elements and their proposed levels- were so high. That may be all well and good, in bizzaro world, but come on! It was serious padding for the top Canadian team at a Winter Games in their own backyard.

Skaters that get to compete at home always get a little bit of a boost in the Olympics, but Dube & Davison were not the only Canadian team competiting! Langlois & Hay were clean and should be placed higher.

Still, this is just the short program, it'll all be decided tonight during the Long Program. Will it be the German couple -poised to take it after a steady rise to teh top- or will Shen & Zhao get their storybook ending?

Pair's Short - Numbers Drawn

Pairs, come out with your blades a-blazin'!
http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-figure-skating/schedule-and-results/pairs-short-program_fsx020201Tu.html

1 SHEN Xue / ZHAO Hongbo CHN
2 SERGEJEVA Maria / GLEBOV Ilja EST
3 SULEJ Joanna / CHRUSCINSKI Mateusz POL
4 DENNEY Caydee / BARRETT Jeremy USA
5 HAUSCH Maylin / WENDE Daniel GER
6 JAMES Vanessa / BONHEUR Yannick FRA
7 BAZAROVA Vera / LARIONOV Yuri RUS
8 EVORA Amanda / LADWIG Mark USA
9 LANGLOIS Anabelle / HAY Cody CAN
10 KOSTENKO Ekaterina / TALAN Roman UKR
11 DELLA MONICA Nicole / KOCON Yannick ITA
12 KEMP Stacey / KING David GBR
13 MORAND Anais / DORSAZ Antoine SUI
14 MUKHORTOVA Maria / TRANKOV Maxim RUS
15 VOLOSOZHAR Tatiana / MOROZOV Stanislav UKR
16 KAVAGUTI Yuko / SMIRNOV Alexander RUS
17 DUBE Jessica / DAVISON Bryce CAN
18 PANG Qing / TONG Jian CHN
19 ZHANG Dan / ZHANG Hao CHN
20 SAVCHENKO Aliona / SZOLKOWY Robin GER