Europeans

Europeans are right around the corner!

Bern, Switzerland
Mon. Jan. 24th - Sun. Jan 30th



Entries/results:
http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent00011203.htm

Universal Sports TV schedule:
Mon, Jan 24th
Tue, Jan 25th
Tue, Jan 25th
Wed, Jan 26th
Wed, Jan 26th
Thu, Jan 27th
Thu, Jan 27th
Fri, Jan 28th
Fri, Jan 28th
Sat, Jan 29th
Sat, Jan 29th
Sun, Jan 30th
Sun, Jan 30th

This was all the info on their website. No times or events descriptions yet. Sorry . If anyone else has this info, please share! On the positive side, looks like there will be plenty of coverage!

I ALWAYS have all exams during Euro champs I think my professors check schedule of Euros, and then they choose dates of exams

Me too! I was so excited to see the Short dance for the first time at Euros, but I won't be able to do it since at those hours I've got an exam! And the next days I'll be busy studying for the next one

europeanfan wrote:

I ALWAYS have all exams during Euro champs I think my professors check schedule of Euros, and then they choose dates of exams

The same here!

Euros and Australian Open ALWAYS clash with my exam session!

Remember when Euros was in Warsaw? I had Euros in my hometown, 15 minutes away from my home! And I couldn't go... I had my very first exam session in January, 8 exams in 2 weeks.. exactly during that time. I was devastated I was so busy writing exams or studying for the next ones that I missed Euros in Warsaw completly..

Of course now when I am older, have more experience and I am almost finishing my studies - I wouldn't care and I would go And now I am used to learning while watching Euros in fs and hearing the sound of ball hitting during the night Actually it is my fifth year that way now

Anyway, of course I will watch some Euros

kaarolcia wrote:

Anyway, of course I will watch some Euros

Me too. None of exam will prevent me from doing it

I'm curious who will win ladies' competition. Lepisto is injured, Carolina doesn't do 3F and 3Lu so who? Kira? Noooo.... I hope Alena will fight

I´d love to see Sarah Meier on the podium. Her last Europeans in her home country after a lot of injuries ... would be great to see her finishing the active career with a medal.

europeanfan wrote:

Me too. None of exam will prevent me from doing it

I'm curious who will win ladies' competition. Lepisto is injured, Carolina doesn't do 3F and 3Lu so who? Kira? Noooo.... I hope Alena will fight

I don't dare to predict the winner but I think it might be interesting to see how Ira Vannut is going to stack up against the European senior ladies.

I really have no idea what the podiums will look like this year!.... Carolina has been skating clean, but not very difficult. Laura won't even be there. There's lot's of newer up and coming skaters who might be threats. You have Kira, Sara, Elene, and Valentina, who usually don't medal, but are always there in the mix, and ya never know... Then you got all the Russian girls.... Like kawaiimao, I'm not even going to try to guess!

As for the guys, I think it'safe to bet that there will be at least one French guy on the podium, but other than that, I'm not sure...

As for pairs, I'm sure the germans will win. Second and third should be Russian teams (not sure which ones though...).

Swedish live coverage link (for those interested). It should work for everyone in Europe, I think..

http://svtplay.se/t/103698/konstakning

I'm soooo in love with Katya and Dima new short dance. Josh Groban.

I wonder what temperature on the ice rink in Bern is. All people in the audience wear coats, caps and blankets, even competitiors warm up in sweatshirts .

I love SP of Aliona & Robin I couldn't watch dances but I watched pairs. I love what italian and germany pairs showed, K& S were good either, but they've never been my favs.

And their music during step sequence is so squeaky...

europeanfan wrote:

I wonder what temperature on the ice rink in Bern is. All people in the audience wear coats, caps and blankets, even competitiors warm up in sweatshirts .

According to the Swedish commentator the temperature in the rink is unusually cold for a skating
championship...

Aibhlin wrote:

europeanfan wrote:

I wonder what temperature on the ice rink in Bern is. All people in the audience wear coats, caps and blankets, even competitiors warm up in sweatshirts .

According to the Swedish commentator the temperature in the rink is unusually cold for a skating
championship...

All skating rinks in Switzerland are quite cold... Skaters and coaches complained about that because of the higher risk of injury in that coldness!

I loove Savchenko/Szolkowy's programs. Just brilliant!!!
And did you see Kristoffer Berntsson's SP? Absolutely beautiful. And who has around 3 points more than Berntsson in PCS?! Exactly, Brian Joubert....

josling wrote:

And did you see Kristoffer Berntsson's SP? Absolutely beautiful. And who has around 3 points more than Berntsson in PCS?! Exactly, Brian Joubert....

Always love me some Koffe.

He may not be the most musical skater but I like that he often uses more creative choreography than some of the other top skaters... At least it makes it interesting to watch.

Sorry about the tv airings I posted up before. The page I got it from said tv listings, but it was obviously wrong. I think that was some sort of live shedule.... I think universal sports will be airing the competition some time next month. Not sure though... Anyone else know?

Congrats to Sarah!
Although I'm not exactly her fan, that was a well deserved and very moving victory before her home crowd, especially after all she's been through recently.
What a fantastic competition for her!

On the other hand I can't help feeling that Carolina was ridiculously overscored again!

Congratulations to the winners esp. to Sarah!

Sarah's FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfWrARyEOOw

Wonderful skate. Plus her shocked reaction in the kiss and cry and the jubilation of the crowd was priceless.

Added bonus for showing Stephane in the clip.

I'm really happy for Sarah - she nailed her first performance of the season and captured the gold medal at home! I'm also happy for Carolina. She put the flip back in, but didn't implode after making a couple of mistakes.

OMG ... I just watched Sarah´s performance on Eurosport and I had tears in my eyes. What an emotional atmosphere ! She really deserved to win. Congrats to her ! What can be more fulfilling than winning the European title in front of your home crowd at your very last competition ?! WOW !!!

mash5 wrote:

OMG ... I just watched Sarah´s performance on Eurosport and I had tears in my eyes. What an emotional atmosphere ! She really deserved to win. Congrats to her ! What can be more fulfilling than winning the European title in front of your home crowd at your very last competition ?! WOW !!!

A_M_A_Z_I_N_G !!!

I was a little shocked to see Carolina winning the free. She seemed indeed overscored as kawaiimao already mentioned. Unfortunately it was a similar situation compared to Worlds last year when Yu-Na won the free despite mistakes and Mao was placed second although she did a wonderful clean skate.

For me there was no doubt that Sarah should win the free when she finished her program yesterday .... then I saw the marks and I couldn´t believe it. More than 3 points behind Carolina in the free. O.K., Caro certainly deserves higher PCS, but with that disastrous short program, no lutz and just one failed flip attempt she was only two points behind Sarah in total. And Sarah had no mistake at all during the whole competition.

I generally like Caro´s skating very much, but here I don´t understand the judging. Imagine Sarah would have doubled just one of her triples. Then Caro would have taken the gold. With that performances ? No !

mash5 wrote:

I was a little shocked to see Carolina winning the free. She seemed indeed overscored as kawaiimao already mentioned. Unfortunately it was a similar situation compared to Worlds last year when Yu-Na won the free despite mistakes and Mao was placed second although she did a wonderful clean skate.

For me there was no doubt that Sarah should win the free when she finished her program yesterday .... then I saw the marks and I couldn´t believe it. More than 3 points behind Carolina in the free. O.K., Caro certainly deserves higher PCS, but with that disastrous short program, no lutz and just one failed flip attempt she was only two points behind Sarah in total. And Sarah had no mistake at all during the whole competition.

I generally like Caro´s skating very much, but here I don´t understand the judging. Imagine Sarah would have doubled just one of her triples. Then Caro would have taken the gold. With that performances ? No !

And Sarah also did two clean lutzes, which are worth a lot of points.

I was happy to see a sentimental favourite of mine (Meier) finally rise to the occasion and stand at the top of the podium but I have to be honest - ladies' skating in Europe is just not in a good place right now. Watching the ladies' free I felt almost as cold inside as most of the spectators must have been feeling. Ok, maybe I'm over-exaggerating a little but it really did leave me feeling very sad. I am no great fan of Kostner but having seen her live I do agree that if she ever got her act together she'd be hitting World podium after podium. But she has never done that, yet has never been off the European podium which again says something about the level of that competition. The two Finnish women have very good skating skills as well as speed (though not Kostner level) and choreo and movements. But they are also wildly inconsistent. Once the baby Russians enter the senior stage, will there be any political clout left for Kostner + Finns? They are missing their chance to truly shine (even though imho they do get some help from the judges).
As a European, it's just sad to see such wasted potential. :/

And it actually got me thinking of something Verner said, when he credited his coach with his improved consistency. Apparently in Europe they never do full run-throughs yet he claimed that it was his coach's insistence that he perform them that has resulted in a more stabile season for him (by Verner status, that is). Rumor has it that Kostner also left Carroll because she didn't want to do run-throughs. Not being a figure skater myself (though I've skated on ice pads, lakes and rinks since childhood - I am Scandinavian after all ) I wonder: could this be part of the European problem with inconsistent skaters, that they train the program and jumps separately leaving the skater less chance to build up muscle memory? But at the same time, I know it is way too simple a solution. I just can't help to wonder...

Aibhlin wrote:

I was happy to see a sentimental favourite of mine (Meier) finally rise to the occasion and stand at the top of the podium but I have to be honest - ladies' skating in Europe is just not in a good place right now. Watching the ladies' free I felt almost as cold inside as most of the spectators must have been feeling. Ok, maybe I'm over-exaggerating a little but it really did leave me feeling very sad. I am no great fan of Kostner but having seen her live I do agree that if she ever got her act together she'd be hitting World podium after podium. But she has never done that, yet has never been off the European podium which again says something about the level of that competition. The two Finnish women have very good skating skills as well as speed (though not Kostner level) and choreo and movements. But they are also wildly inconsistent. Once the baby Russians enter the senior stage, will there be any political clout left for Kostner + Finns? They are missing their chance to truly shine (even though imho they do get some help from the judges).
As a European, it's just sad to see such wasted potential. :/

And it actually got me thinking of something Verner said, when he credited his coach with his improved consistency. Apparently in Europe they never do full run-throughs yet he claimed that it was his coach's insistence that he perform them that has resulted in a more stabile season for him (by Verner status, that is). Rumor has it that Kostner also left Carroll because she didn't want to do run-throughs. Not being a figure skater myself (though I've skated on ice pads, lakes and rinks since childhood - I am Scandinavian after all ) I wonder: could this be part of the European problem with inconsistent skaters, that they train the program and jumps separately leaving the skater less chance to build up muscle memory? But at the same time, I know it is way too simple a solution. I just can't help to wonder...

This is actually a reason for inconsistency. It is much easier to land all of your jumps on fresh legs with breaks in between them in practice. However, doing them one after another with linking choreo and spins really tires you out. Actually, the most tiring thing about a program is the spins because you have to hold your breath in the crazy COP variations. Anyway, if you even skip one day of doing a full run-through, you really feel it the next day, and that program is usually not so great. This is a simple solution, but many of the skaters don't have the motivation to train like this.

Are you serious?! They really don't practice their programs all the way through in Europe before competition?! As someone who's done lot's of performing arts, I can say that I would never dream of performing, or competition without practicing my routines over and over again all the way through. I wouldn't feel prepared or confident. It would also be good to know that I for sure that when the program is all put together it wouldn't be too hard for me or I would run out of steam by the end.

So Sarah won?! Wow, I'm happy for her! Is this really her last season?

Also very happy to hear that Florent won mens! I really like him, and he's becoming one of my favorite guys.