Recap of US Figure Skating CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024 » Scoreography Podcast
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- We recap the exciting United States Nationals 2024 competition from Columbus, OH, featuring a dramatic upset in the women’s event, a stellar fight for the podium in Ice Dance, promising performances from the Men, and an underwhelming Pairs event.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:53 Columbus, OH Crowd
2:37 Commentary from Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon
4:33 Women’s Competition
24:39 Ice Dance Competition
44:56 Men’s Competition
1:02:06 Pairs Competition
1:14:13 Gold in our Hearts
1:15:37 Wrap-Up
The 2024 US National Championships gave us a little bit of everything. We saw a quad axel and second nationals win from a slightly messier than usual Ilia Malinin. We witnessed a Women’s final where Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito both struggled - with Amber scoring just enough to take her first national title. An awful case of the flu still didn’t stop Chock and Bates from taking the Ice Dance gold. Lastly, we watched a Pairs field filled with promise but, unfortunately, so many errors.
Women’s Competition
The biggest story out of this event is the long-awaited win for fan favorite, Amber Glenn. We were amongst those pulling for her on every jump from home - and while she did have a great short program and landed her triple axel, the second half of her long program suffered from several errors that but the top of the podium in doubt.
However, Isabeau Levito - who led after the short program - had three falls in her free skate and had to settle for the bronze.
In the silver spot, we saw perhaps the highlight of the competition from Josephine Lee. She delivered two fantastic programs, with her free skate being the cleanest of the night. She’s too young to go to Worlds this year, but watch out for her in years to come!
Ice Dance Competition
Madison Chock & Evan Bates stunned with their Queen rhythm dance, which was helpful because their free dance saw some uncharacteristic errors due to them both dealing with a horrible case of the flu. They nearly withdrew from the competition, but had enough in the tank to still take gold.
In second, with what seemed like breakout performances from them, Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko shined. Their free dance especially won the night, and saw them skate with their full technical and artistic prowess - but also with more emotion and freedom than we’ve seen before.
Taking the bronze, a bit of surprise came with the medal for Emily Bratti & Ian Somerville. This young team has all it takes to have a big career, with Ian especially bringing star-power to the ice. But their podium-step ahead of former silver medalists Caroline Green & Michael Parsons in this competition was unexpected, though well-earned.
Men’s Competition
As expected, Ilia Malinin dominated the competition with quads a-plenty. He even broke out the quad axel in the free skate - along with an unplanned triple lutz / triple axel / triple toeloop combination near the very end to make up for a few errors and secure the top spot.
In silver, the class of the field Jason Brown skated two gorgeous programs, which both saw uncharacteristic falls. He still had him trademark appeal - and, most importantly for Team USA, enough quality and exceptional skill to rely on at Worlds.
In bronze, a wonderful completion for Camden Pulkinen landed him not only on the podium but also won him a trip to Worlds.
In fourth, we saw a stellar showing from Maxim Naumov. Looking forward to more from him at Four Continents.
Pairs Competition
At the end of the short program, favorites Spencer Howe & Emily Chan led the field. However, due to Spencer’s continued recovery from surgery, they withdrew from the competition - though were still selected for the World team.
The pairs that remained mostly struggled with singles elements and delivered a fairly messy competition. In the end, Ellie Kim & Danny O’Shea squeaked out a victory.
Right behind them, the new team of Alisa Efimova & Misha Mitrofanov won the free skate and showed they have a lot of skill - look for them to move up over the next few seasons.
In third, Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez took their first National’s bronze with a crowd-pleasing performance in the long program.
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So happy for Amber Glenn! It wasn't the best showing she could have had, but it's the best overall we've seen from her this season, so I'm excited to see what she will do at Worlds.
Joesphine Lee wasn't a name I was familiar with before, but she really won the competition for me. Seeing a skater put two terrific clean skates together was really a win at the women's competition. I hope to see her a lot more in the future!
Joey's a gem, for sure! We hope her performance here gets the USFS to invest in her training. And we love seeing Amber finally capture the title. It's a particularly special thing to see an adult veteran of the sport improve the way she has. To add that triple axel at this point in her career is phenomenal.
Glad to find another fs podcast. I enjoyed listening I can't wait to listen more
I'm really enjoying their commentary, too. I like how they go skater by skater, it's easy to follow.
Glad to have you with us!
I enjoyed this podcast !😊
I was ACCUALLY there! In Columbus! I’m a figure skater and also was a sweeper for women’s FS and I got to hold there medals on the plater at the medal ceremony! It was super insporatonal and I loved it! 😊 super fun.
That's so awesome, what an amazing experience!
Super fun and is a favorite memory for me and it was very fun! I’m never going to forget it! I’m also going to worlds in Montreal Canada! I’m never going to forget these moments and I’m motivated to work harder now that I’ve met these amazing athletes I also got to meet ilia Malinin and most of the men and women and ice dancers and Katie mcbeaths mom ACCUALLY works at my school so I’ve met her many times and was rooting for her!
@@jeffgibbon977 So excited for you to get to go to Worlds! (We're jealous!) And we can only imagine that, as a skater, getting to see such incredible talent like that in person much be very inspiring.
I’m super excited for ice dance because I ice dance and I’m going to compete juvenile next year with my partner! I’m also going with my best friend who is competing juv ladies next year! We’re both super excited! If you guys have instagram I could problem send over videos! I’m sure my parents or me will be posting about it!
I haven't even had a chance to look for the gala, didn't know it wasn't up, but glad it will be. It's already time for 4 Continents, it's going to be a busy weekend.
Between 4 Continents and all the news around the IOC ruling, there's a lot to keep up with!
Really enjoyed your commentary!
Thank you, glad to have you with us!
I was at Nationals the crowds were amazing! Wish they would have draped the seats behind the judges because the platform the technical panel sat at obstructed the view of so many seats in the section it was obvious in the arena they couldn't be sold but on TV it looked like empty unsold seats.
That's helpful to note! The crowd looked impressive to us at home, but details like that are important for sure. So awesome you got to be there!
I loved Jason Brown and Amber Glen. Jason is a treasure! I am so proud for Josephine Lee and I am concerned for Isabeau. I think that both the men and Ice Dance will retain the three spots for Worlds in 2025. I am not sure about women and pairs.
Looking at the women's scores from Four Continents (and thinking about other elite competitors like Kaori and Leona), our US ladies are in for some very tough competition at Worlds. The podium feels unlikely, but this season has been filled with upsets! Pairs is completely unpredictable right now, so who knows?
Josephine should have been scored higher in the Short program! Had she received the score she deserved (in the low 70's) she would have won
Honestly first thing I (Adron) said when the final scores came up was "I think Joey should have won this". I'm thrilled for Amber, but Josephine was the total package here.
Truth nailed.
Yaroslav Paniot pronunciation help: the last name is pronounce as "pah-nee-OT". The last name may (?) be of Greek origin; historically, there have been Greek communities in Ukraine.
That's very helpful, thank you!
B/S was such a surprise! And I like a good upset in ice dance...keeps everyone on their toes. I gotta admit she looks too big for him, especially in the lifts, there are other couples that look better matched, but they got the job done. F/D are just spectacular performers, they also had the highest scored element in the senior competition, their combo lift.
Flores & Desyatov fit into a similar place right now as another of our favs, Lim & Quan - young teams lower back in the rankings, but with outsized charisma and huge potential. VERY excited to see how these teams grow and evolve over the coming years!
I'm so excited for Flores/Desyatov too. Can't wait to see how their performance will be as their partnership mature throughout the years. they just recently got their international assignment and got a medal right away. Their charisma, the flow in their movements, just...wowww. Especially Flores, she's so tiny but her presence is so big. And she showed the right amount of facial expressions.
Do yo you guys think that Chock and Bates retire if they win another gold medal at Words in March?
They said on the Today show that they're still eyeing the Olympics. We think they still really want that individual OGM. But now they'll have a team gold (those medals will be delivered sometime soon, right IOC??), and if Papadakis & Cizeron un-retire for the Olympics the competition gets a lot messier. Maddie & Evan really live to compete, and they feel like they're at their peak right now. So we're guessing they keeping going awhile longer, barring injury or a big change of heart.
So happy for Max! Being from MA, I felt he should have been third. I’m sorry Camden’s spins are subpar, especially in today’s Men’s Skating and that should have placed Max over him. Camden HAS to address leaving these easy points continually off the table. Internationally he gets 3’s.
Max was terrific. Would have been happy to see in in bronze. Not sure we agree on Camden's spins-but we can't go back to the Peacock feed to reevaluate them, sadly. We'll keep our eyes on them, though. But he definitely loses a lot of points on the ice for little things.
Lindsay’s technique needs fixing as well. Too many under rotated and badly pre rotated jumps (just like Isabeau). She’d do better w/a different coach.
We love Lindsay's skating, but there's a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the US skaters could probably benefit from a few weeks training with Ilia's parents...
Isabeau’s always over scored & even as a jr., the usfsa nvr addressed her bad technique. Shades of Alysa Liu. Over scored bc we were so desperate for the next star. She ended w/no longevity in the sport.
What I love about Isabeau is how she punctuates different parts of the music. Most skaters just skate through the music much of the time, they could be skating to anything.
@@L.Spencer True
There've always been favored skaters that are/were over-scored domestically with a blind eye towards obvious problems. (i.e. like Bradie's URs never getting called in US competition) It's frustrating! I (Adron) don't remember those issues with Alysa, but I was perhaps not as critical a viewer at that point.
@L.Spencer Yes! A common phrase we say while watching disappointing programs is "(they) could have been skating to anything". Isabeau typically shows deep connection to the music and her choreography reflects that.
@@scoreography I appreciate your answer
In the singles, there isn't much to recap; it was shockingly bad, except for Malinin.
Amber "fell up" to win Gold. I could make a bad joke about Isabeau "spiraling" down to Bronze.
U.S. ladies skating is mediocre at best. And don't fall for the praise for Isabeau. Clearly, she's been designated the new American Princess, and all are instructed to gush over her. She's getting worse btw. At 16 years.
The men's singles category has no depth. Jason was lured out of retirement two years running because otherwise Ilia would be the only star. And then the judges overlooked Jason's shortcomings and gave him pity points that robbed Pulkinen of a Silver Medal. If this continues, then American skating will become a niche spectator sport like curling. Actually, it already is; look at the commercials (river cruises and memory aids).
I agree with your analysis of the men's category. Camden should have been second at Nationals. I don't know why Jason keeps getting propped up in the scores, and our "Ilia back-up-team" of Camden/Maxim/Andrew is not getting the experience they need, with only two years until the Olympics. It SHOULD be panic time, but suuuure...let's keep backing someone who's partially retired. UGH.
We adore Jason, but I (Adron) struggle with skating's quirky rules, allowing for a skater to compete in Nationals and Worlds without really working the circuit. It feels kinda unfair to all the skaters doing the work through a whole season-though clearly Jason has done *all* the work over his long career.
I think a general problem with American figure skating is the NBC-ifcation of its story. NBC/Universal is always so obsessed with a single "face" of a sport (see also: gymnastics and swimming) because it's easier for them to hype their narrative. But it puts tons of pressure on single athletes, and marginalizes many more putting in the work to grow and get support. USFS seems happy to play along, to the detriment of the field.
@@scoreography Excellent points!