My golden my heart this season is Adam Siao Him Fa. I was not a big fan of Figure skating until I heard his name and saw his performance. I fell in love how he narrates on ice. Now I watch nationals and went to the ice shows. He drew me in and made me a fan of FS.
The ability to excite and draw in a new audience is the sign of a truly great skater! Adam is one of this generation's great storytellers on ice. So happy he pulled you into the fandom!
We don't know for certain yet whether or not he's retiring, but... I want to shout out Shoma Uno for carrying these post Olympic seasons. What he achieved at Worlds in the short program for me embodies almost like, the Platonic ideal of what men's skating can be. Disciplined and clean, but so deeply felt, soulful, and introspective. Gold in my heart for sure, even though it wasn't his time to podium overall. And he has more than enough medals, anyway. What a journey he's had! What an impact he's had.
We just saw the announcement a minute ago! 😭 We’re of course not surprised, and we’re excited to see what he does next. But just as you stated so beautifully, he’s been the soul of men’s figure skating these last years. Elite competition without him is a hard pill to swallow…
@@giuliacleti5950 Our next (audio) episode is definitely going to focus on him (alongside other skating news). But a video tribute episode should be in the cards, too.
Gold in my heart I didn't watch most of the season but from the competitions I watched I will start with my favs which are the Men. Gold in my heart for the men is Adam Siao Him Fa. It so amazing how far he has come since he caught my attention in 2022. He earned the second Olympic spot for France in 2022. He went from middle of the pack over the past 2 seasons to being among the top Men and sealing his legend with that final performance this season ❤ The gold in my heart for women was Kimmy Ripond. I have been a fan for a short time. I know she had an injury and growth spurt that she struggled with all season. That final performance after a bad short demonstrated with great skating skills how despite all those struggles she had no control over was able to perform a phenomenal program that gave her 5th overall in the world. ❤ Gold in my heart for pairs Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara. They are just so magical to watch and I love them so much. Fighting through injury to take the silver was just great to watch. ❤ Gold in my heart for ice dace Alison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius. That AcDc program was everything. I am so looking forward forward to the push towards 2026 ❤ Special shout out Deniss Vasiljevs for bringing the house down with the Lion King program that was a program constructed from an existed one in 3 weeks and finishing in the top 10. ❤️
Excellent choices all around! We adore Kimmy (and her friendship with Isabeau). She's such a promising talent. We really hope she can get some lift back in her jumps during the off season to power up her programs a bit. And Riku & Ryu are two of our favs as well-the most emotive pairs duo!
@@scoreography I forgot to mention in my post I will miss Shoma Uno too. I am sad he is retiring from competition. But I am happy we saw him for two more seasons. He will be missed but the passing of the the torch to Yuma was nice to see too.
It has to be Deanna and Max for me. Their season was historic and something that all of figure skating will remember and celebrate for years to come. I also can't wait to see what Adam and Benoit create next year. They seem very well matched as a team.
I really enjoyed Loena H's programs. So energetic! I know some people don't like her style but I found her entertaining, and sports stars still have to entertain at the end of the day. I also discovered junior ice dance this season and love all the teams!
We love Loena! We really enjoy her style, though we think that there should have been more differentiation between her short and long this season. That short program was dynamite, but the free skate let her down too many times and felt very same-y. But she is absolutely an entertainer - there's a reason she gets invited on all the show tours - and just a joy of a person! Junior women and junior ice dance both impressed this year! We hadn't paid much attention to them previously but, wow, the upcoming talent has us very excited for their senior debuts.
Only recently came across your podcast - long time figure skating fan (was a young kid when Torvill and Dean won gold) and used to figure skate. LOVE your insights, both of you. And you've definitely gained a new fan/subscriber here! Looking forward to more! Thank you so much for a great season retrospective!
@@ddjr6673 That's a single axel more than most ever do! We're planning on taking some basic skating lessons sometime this year-but that's just to be able to get on the ice with Zamboni-ing it without our backsides!
Thank you! We'll be experimenting with various video styles while continuing the usual audio-only podcast format. This video took SO MANY hours of work-so clip shows like this will probably be shorter in the future. 😅
My personal fav this season from the senior field (i am way to obsessed with juniors) is probably Chaeyeon Kim. Probably the best jumps in the womens field (apart from the iffy flip edge, but i thinks thats fixable), and an amazing level of skating skills and spinning ability considering she was such a late starter.
She is such a lovely skater of remarkable quality. If she can extend her emotional expression to match her skating skills, she could really dominate. (Also, bonus points to her mom for being an amazing costume designer!)
What a great recap - brought back so many great memories. Crazy how it all already seems so long ago! I'm a massive Reed/Ambrulevicius fan and your comments about them really chime with my own feelings: such great story-telling, and they always go left-field with their music choices. My gold in my heart for the season is, however, Piper and Paul. I felt that they were very much swimming against the tide in terms of the notorious Ice Dance 'Judging Order' all season - but to pull out that truly beautiful and spectacular FD at Worlds - almost forcing the judges to reward them, took real guts. Two really awesome people, into the bargain. Roll on the next season!
Yes! Agree! I thought they were undermarked in the RD too. The World's FD - Piper was luminous. It's very rare *anyone* gets a level 4 in the one foot step and she did. I would have had them Gold. I am a Brit and Lilah and Lewis at NHK and their FD there. But everyone ought to watch Marjorie and Zak. They caught my eye a couple of years ago with their Rio (bird/parrots) FD - he gives me Scott Moir vibes (in the best way). Future World Champions imo.
@jonathanokeefe9783 Piper & Paul's Worlds FD was simply marvelous! And we're hoping that the standout performances from Reed & Ambrulevicius this season create greater notoriety and support for them.
@ddjr6673 Lajoie & Lagha are a remarkable team. Hoping for great things in the future for them! Will be very curious to see what Lilah & Lewis do next. The Rocky program was so singular (really can't think of another team that could have pulled that off), how do you follow that up? 🤔
many of my favorites of the season were mentioned here as well, it's nice to look back to some of the earlier performances. i'm a huge fan of Marjo and Zak so i'm so happy they're being mentioned a lot here 😂 they had a lot of big moments this season (almost beat Gilles/Poirier at Cup of China, GPF debut) but their defining moment for me is delivering 2 spectacular skates at home Worlds after Marjo's concussion :') so happy they could come back on time and i hope it's only up from here for them. i also really enjoyed Hase/Volodin, what a dream debut season for them! their short program may be quite generic but i love it a lot.
Hase & Volodin made great work of what could have been unmemorable programs. They definitely need better material because the skill and charisma is there! We're ready to start the Lajoie & Lagha fan club!
The face she made when she looked at her phone and saw the news made me think there'd been some kind of catastrophe! She's definitely pretty down about it but, as you said, we all saw it coming. Will definitely be the primary topic in our next episode!
I was sure my interest in male singles figure skating would be gone after Shoma's retirement but i am still really invested in the current skaters and what they might bring to the table and how they will improve but right now im with Wendy as the gold in my heart is also Kagiyama, i went from rolling my eyes to that Believer program to whole heartedly enjoy it.
We know a lot of people didn’t appreciate the Believer program at first, but hopefully Yuma won them over in the end! We’ve seen some promising men’s programs so far this pre-season (especially Yuma’s SP), so we’re excited (even without our beloved Shoma)
