The Rundown from Russia

Unfortunately, my love of skating is no match for the cold I've had for the past week...sorry for the lack of updates!

Cup of Russia is done and in the books. This GP stop drew me in a lot more than the other ones have. Since I still can't breath through my nose, here are the highlights (for me) from the competition (I might post a more in depth review later on):

-->Mens: If Brian Joubert and Tomas Verner were newspaper articles, they would be front page and center with the headline "We're Back!!" After seriously shakey starts to their seasons, these guys were on in Moscow. Joubert's long program, which placed fourth, wasn't up to his usual standard, but his short program was absolutely fantastic. From flirting with Tatiana Tarasova to nailing that pesky quad, the short got him enough points to safeguard his first place position. Tomas Verner skated brilliantly, placing second--he looked MUCH better than he has all season. The short program was a bit messy for most of the other competitors, the exception being Adam Rippon, who ended up in a very respectable fifth place overall after placing third in the short. Teammate Jeremy Abbott had some trouble with his short, but rallied back with a second place long that brought him up to fourth place (and bought him a ticket to Korea in December). Alban Preaubert placed third in the freeskate and overall to secure a bronze medal.

-->Ladies: Speaking of competitors getting their legs back under them (literally and figuratively), Carolina Kostner showed that she's not going anywhere. She placed second to a revamped Fumie Seguri (yes, she's still around) in the short, but skated a good long to move up to first place. She's gone back to her freeskate from last year. Rachael Flatt of the US was also there. After placing third in the short, she had a great long and secured the highest ladies placement for the US in the GP yet--second place. I haven't always been a big supporter of Rachael (her skating sometimes seems, well, (forgive me) flat). However she was ON in Russia. Kimmie Meissner's troubles continued, causing her to place eighth, and Alissa Csizny placed fourth.

-->Pairs: Pairs has always been a huge deal for the Russians, so Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov placing second to the Chinese pair of Zhang and Zhang was probably a bit of a blow. The Russian team won the freeskate, but was unable to overcome the point deficit that they'd accumulated in the short. I can't say that I love either of these teams, but they both looked pretty good.

-->Dance: This competition was INTENSE and definitely the highlight of this GP event for me (I seem to be saying that a lot this season). I was pretty sure that Oksana Domina and Maxim Shabalin had the gold medal locked up, but a second place finish in their OD and third in their slow, messy-looking FD caused them to lose the gold to teammates Jana Khoklova and Sergei Novitski. That's HUGE considering Domina and Shabalin are considered to be amongst the favorites for Worlds this year and Khoklova and Novitski are just, well, not. However, they certainly changed that with this competition--Khoklova and Novtiski looked cleaner and sharper than I've ever seen them look before. However, the absolute high point of this competition (I'm biased, I know, I'm sorry) was Meryl Davis and Charlie White's FD. After placing third in the CD, they had an absolutely disastrous OD where White stumbled on a twizzle and then just completely melted down afterwards (I couldn't watch it--he looked so upset). They dropped to fourth with a HUGE point deficit that seemed completely insurmountable (in ice dance, it's difficult to make up large differences in points since there aren't any big jumps that are rewarded heavily). Basically, I'd lost hope and debated whether or not I wanted to check the scores this morning. However, they came back with a HUGE bang. As though nothing had happened the day before, they pulled off and absolutely amazing FD with level fours on everything except their step sequences and came up with the highest technical scores of the night as well as a second place FD (yep, they beat Domina and Shabalin). (end gushing here)

I meant to leave you off with Meryl Davis and Charlie White's FD AND Brian Joubert's SP...but since only Brian has been posted on YouTube so far, I'll have to get back to you with the Meryl and Charlie video: