Next up, we move on to the US national championships and a pairs event which was very directly impacted by COVID. We discuss the difficulty of skating against a team unable to be in the competition for an Olympic spot, the likelihood of Olympic alternates being needed to fill in at the Games, and whether this event really needed to happen to decide on Olympic spots.

We wrap up Canadian nationals with the pairs, and the contentious decision made regarding the Olympic assignments. We discuss some season best performances (including from teams who just had interrupted training time due to COVID), how to keep developing young pair teams in Canada, and our hope (unfortunately unrealized) that the Olympic team decision was communicated clearly and compassionately to the team who was left out in the cold.

Next up we discuss the women's event, which has always been a bit of a weaker discipline for Canada, and we discuss the importance of sending out many more skaters (junior and senior) for tech minimums and competition experience, who we hope will continue to stick around in the Canadian skating world (as either skaters, coaches, or choreographers), and wonder just who the Olympic alternates will be since it hasn't been announced.

There were a lot of strong teams competing in the Canadian nationals dance event, and we discuss the impact of empty stands on the performance level the skaters were able to put out, our thoughts on changes we'd like to see in some lifts that we don't think quite work, and why last minute music changes need to come with substantial choreographic changes to be effective.

We begin our recap of the substantial amount of skating from this weekend with the Canadian men, and a discussion of the overall COVID testing situation at Canadian nationals. We discuss some young guys with lots of potential who really delivered here, missing skates and luggage leading to some nervous moments, and the tough decision making involved in deciding whether to try competing when you've just lost training time due to COVID.

We wrap up this week's competitions with the Russian national pairs event, which was a bit rougher than usual, but still one of our favourite events of the season. We discuss whether it might be a good idea for the European and Olympic teams to be different in an Olympic year (as many Four Continents countries do), some teams cleaning up their recurring mistakes while we see other teams making mistakes we had hoped they'd gotten over, and why Russia should add at least one extra flight at nationals to really showcase the incredible depth they have in pairs skating.

The men at Russian nationals were as unpredictable as ever, and we discuss why a short program strategy we've complained about for two seasons might have dashed a skater's hopes for an Olympic spot, how amazing it was that our winner was able to skate consistently under the extreme pressure of an Olympic season nationals, and whether results at Europeans could influence the federation to change the men's assignments for the Olympics.

Next up, we discuss the women's event at Russian nationals, which saw the gamut of withdrawals, great skates and nervous skates. We discuss some exciting junior programs that could have been more rewarded, the many quads attempted and landed and our concerns about their longevity among such young skaters, and the issues the federation runs into when successful juniors place ahead of age-eligible seniors at nationals, particularly in an Olympic year.

Next up, we move on to Russian nationals which were filled with drama, particularly in the dance event. We discuss why skipping an event is very likely better for your health and your career than competing while injured, whether skaters prohibited from going to the previous Olympics will be allowed to go this time around, and our general frustrations with judging this season (exacerbated by the usual extreme domestic scoring).

In this half of our Japanese nationals recap we cover both the dance and the men, and discuss a really difficult Olympic team decision in ice dance, our yearly plea for more Japanese singles skaters to try out pairs and/or dance, and whether anyone will ever actually be able to land a clean quad Axel in a program.