In case you are wondering, the photo is of French skater, Florent Amodio who recently won the European Championship. He won the title on the strength of his short program, so that is the program I am going to link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLR9tjqAr2E
This is either Italian or Spanish television, no subtitles this time.
The silver medalist was another French skater, Brian Joubert, who actually won the freeskate. Joubert is trying new music this year, Beethoven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXOvsH5bkwk
The bronze medalist was Thomas Verner of the Czech Republic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHw-9qh5JVU
Now, on to U.S. Nationals. The favorites coming in, Jeremy Abbott and Adam Rippon are better covered on the agony of defeat side, so I will write about them later. There were several very good stories to come out of U.S. Nationals though.
With the veterans faltering, the next generation of skaters really stepped up. The first one (shown on NBC) was Richard Dornbush, who is the current Jr. Grand Prix champion. His program was my favorite of the ones shown on NBC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fNyIvU_rdM
(Also, if you watch the video, you will hear that Adam Rippon skated an outstanding program, his freeskate was outstanding. However his short program was not)
The next skater, I wish to highlight is Ross Miner. I was quite surprised by how much I liked this program. I had watched a video of it from a summer competition, and had not liked the program at all. But in late January, I loved it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRlYRHPinWw
Familiar music, huh? :)
The night belonged to one of the veterans though, Ryan Bradley. Last year, he was fourth at Nationals, therefore missing out on the Olympics, and had decided not to compete anymore. After a twitter campaign from his fans, he decided to compete at Nationals. I'm posting both his short programs and free skates.
SP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSgRw_HZXvw&feature=fvst
FS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLR0kIoHxis
The skate of the night though, didn't come from a medalist, or a well know skater. It was from a 16 year old, competing in his first senior nationals. Enjoy the freeskate of Jason Brown, and I think his is a name you should remember in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFVz7WJgkK0
4 comments:
Thanks for posting these! What a line up!!! I didn't see any of the European Championships -- so this was a treat!
Florent Amodio was incredible! The strength in his jumps! Wow!
I have to say I didn't find Brian Joubert's skate as exciting. Excellent skater but the program didn't have the 'it' factor for me.
The men's competition was tight -- It makes exciting viewing for fans. Can't wait to see how all this talent pans out on the world stage.
I can almost smell the ice. I need to get myself to a competition somewhere. I wonder where Canadian Nationals will be held next year?
Thanks for my skating lunch break. It was accompanied by homemade lentil soup Rivita crackers with cheese and a piece of Christmas cake (minus the almond icing which is rock hard now). :-)
I'm glad you enjoyed your lunch time skating break, Kav!
Amodio is very good. I discovered him last year at Skate America, then it happened NBC showed his programs at the Olympics. He was in the penultimate group along with Patrick Chan (or as I called that group, the Sochi preview group).
What I like about Joubert's program is that the music choice is such a departure for him.
The men's competition at World's should be great. If everyone skates well, lol.
I don't know if you've had a chance to watch the three Japanese guys this year. But here are some links
Daisuke Takahashi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zUT3ynT5_s
Nobunari Oda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMVChCwFtE
Takahiko Kozuka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcfHz5wGepY
Thanks for giving me another skating lunch break! I could get use to this! The men's competition is really going to be something to watch at Worlds. I'm really excited though I imagine our coverage won't be great here. Glad I get the U.S. networks. I really enjoy listening to Scott Hamilton commentate. You can feel him go through every jump. His voice is so telling! LOL.
You're very welcome! The Four Continents Championships are in a couple of weeks, so I'm sure I'll have more videos to post then. I imagine from either Chinese or Japanese TV.
I'm sure I'll post videos from Worlds too. That's from March 21-March 27. I suspect most of the competition will be from March 23-27. It's in Tokyo this year, so I'll probably spend my lunch break looking for videos. :D
I checked the skating message board that I'm a member of, but there's nothing up on it yet about Canadian TV coverage of World's. I'll let you know when it's up. I suspect NBC will show the ladies. There's a good chance we might get back our 3 spots this year. I don't know if they'll show anything else on NBC itself though.
I loved reading your comment on Scott Hamilton, on his own I like him. He makes me smile. Sandra Bezic on the other hand has always irritated me.
Check back though, there's been a meme of 30 Days of Skating on some of the skating blogs. I think I'm going to do it. I'll be posting some videos with it probably. Some old stuff, some new.
Post a Comment