The Skating Session

Tony and Thomas are back after the SOS ice dance judging rant yesterday with a full review of the sixth and final Grand Prix regular season stop, Finlandia Trophy. Were there more ice dance shenanigans in the free dance? What was the fallout of the scoring yesterday? As always, a review of all four disciplines plus mention of who we will see in two weeks at the Grand Prix Final. Hopefully by then, Tony's voice and his health will be back to normal. Enjoy!

You know something is up when we break our normal upload schedule to bring you a special episode on the ice dance technical panel calling that ramped up last week at Skate America and has continued this week at Finlandia Trophy. Shawn Rettstatt, head of the ice dance technical committee, is the technical controller in both events. Although not the be-all end-all of the scores, we discuss some of the element calls we saw in the rhythm dance today. And for the millionth time, we beg for the complete overhaul the discipline needs.

See it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/2DZ3Kx3HTIk

Tony reports in from Lake Placid while Thomas breaks things down from home as they dissect Skate America from every angle, from NBC’s Chock/Bates-centric coverage and slow-twizzle discourse to the tech panel’s quad Lutz calls on Kevin Aymoz and Shoma Uno, Jason Brown’s Riverdance short, and the judging trends shaping the men’s field. They dig into standout dance performances from the Browns and Lajoie/Lagha, analyze the error-streaked Men's event, and have a heartfelt moment talking about fan favorite Wakaba Higuchi.

Tony and Thomas are moving right along with the Grand Prix series, this week with stop number four in Osaka, Japan for the NHK Trophy. A lengthy discussion about the dance event and the return of the Shibutanis keeps us over two hours! As always, we also highlight the pairs, mens, and women's competitions and share some of our favorite moments of the week. Enjoy, and please remember to subscribe and like!

Tony and Thomas are back with Skate Canada highlights and opinions. After last week's overall negative vibe to our review, we tried to keep all of the specific poor technical panel calls out of the conversation except for mentioning how even the ISU appointed commentator was getting fed up with it during the short programs! Included, as always, are reviews for all events: the pairs, women, men, and ice dance. Enjoy!

Tony and Thomas stayed up all night both nights watching the Cup of China the second Grand Prix event of the season. For an underwhelming competition, we still managed over 2 hours of insights and opinions! Included are all four disciplines, the questionable call that kept Sui & Han on the podium in the pairs event, the technical panels and judges in the singles' events being in a different reality, Chock & Bates season debut, and plenty of other program details and protocol analysis.

Includes Chock & Bates, Zingas & Kolesnik, Lopareva & Brissaud, Smart & Dieck, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Rinka Watanabe, Anastasiia Gubanova, Jia Shin, Rino Matsuike, Shun Sato, Daniel Grassl, Mikhail Shaidorov, Tomoki Hiwatashi, Boyang Jin, Jacob Sanchez, Junhwan Cha, Metelkina & Berulava, Conti & Macii, Sui & Han, Zhang & Huang, and more!

Tony and Thomas are fresh off watching all of the first Grand Prix of the season in France. Fresh faces, judging controversies, and new programs are all here and it must mean skating season is in full-force! We dive into ice dance first, highlighting Fournier-Beaudry & Cizeron's win and the decline of Guignard & Fabbri with our own views and thoughts moving forward in the Olympic season. We also go over the womens, pairs, and mens competitions discussing the top skaters and some of our favorite moments.

Includes Fournier-Beaudry & Cizeron, Fear & Gibson, Reed & Ambrulevicius, Guignard & Fabbri, Davis & Smolkin, Ami Nakai, Kaori Sakamoto, Rion Sumiyoshi, Isabeau Levito, Miura & Kihara, Stellato-Dudek & Deschamps, Pavlova & Sviatchenko, Ilia Malinin, Adam Siao Him Fa, Nika Egadze, Lukas Britschgi, Francois Pitot, Andrew Torgashev, and more.

Tony and Thomas close out Skate to Milano with a full men’s free skate breakdown and an event‑wide wrap up. It is a rollercoaster of clean skates, near misses, and razor‑thin margins, all in a field so deep that great performances still fell short of Olympic tickets.

Zooming out, Tony and Thomas sketch the early Olympic medal picture for the men, what this qualifier signals about PCS trends, and how quotas, citizenship clocks, and the placement of the team event could reshape the final lineup. There are throwbacks to 90s and 2000s coverage, notes on how the ISU has modernized the show, and a quick Grand Prix look‑ahead.

Expect rulebook nerdery, clear scoring walk‑throughs, and warm, honest commentary with a little nostalgia.

Tony and Thomas unpack the free dance finale of the Skate to Milano Olympic Qualifier in Beijing. They walk through the judging reviews, the long waits for numbers, and the score inputs that shifted on screen while the panel finalized calls, then explain how four Olympic ice dance spots were allocated in a field separated by tenths.

The leaders get a clear read: Lithuania’s Reed and Ambrulevicius win with crowd energy and big highlights, Australia’s Harris and Chan deliver a cohesive Clair de Lune that holds up on construction, Spain’s new duo skate clean enough to rise into third, and China’s Wang and Liu return with a polished, greatest‑hits style program that closes strong. Sweden’s breakout team miss the last ticket by 0.24, and Tony and Thomas show why, using clips and slow‑motion to break down the key elements that decided it.

Expect rulebook nerdery, clear explanations, and side‑by‑side element analysis that maps performance choices to the numbers.

Tony and Thomas break down Day 2 of the Skate to Milano Olympic Qualifier in Beijing. First look at the men’s short program: what Petr Gumennik showed in form and scoring as a neutral athlete, where Donovan Carrillo sits after a crowd‑pleasing skate, and why a six‑point logjam from fourth through eleventh sets up chaos for the free skate. Surprises from Monaco, Ukraine, Germany, and Chinese Taipei, plus a quick audit of under‑rotations, spin calls, and PCS intent versus outcome.

Pairs and women are settled. The alternates, the citizenship caveats, and what these results mean for the team event are discussed. The episode ends with a preview of the men’s free and the free dance: quad math, stamina, judging tendencies, and the scenarios that could move skaters from the middle rows to the Olympic bus.

Expect rulebook nerdery, historical context, and plain‑spoken analysis with music and program talk woven through.