It was so exciting and thrilling to watch US Nationals Figure skating competitions this year !
I really liked how NBC covered all the US nationals events.
It was also great to see Terry Gannon, Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski back together again for the commentary !
Because they are so fun and makes me feel great so I really love watching these three together's appearance.
Also, it was enjoyable to watch the scenes with many skaters's impressive Kiss & Cry moments during the events.
I thank you to NBC !
About the events,
My favorite events were men's and ice dancing this year.
Men
Men's competition, winner was unpredictable seeing the results of Grand Prix Series.
No one was qualified for GPF this season, so I thought Jason Brown, Jeremy Abbott, Max Aaron, Richard Dornbush, Adam Rippon, Joshua Farris, anyone of them could win.
Result
1 Jason Brown SP: 93.36 FP:181.62 Total: 274.98
2 Adam Rippon SP:84.71 FP:187.77 Total: 272.48
3 Joshua Farris SP:90.40 FP:177.58 Total: 267.98
4 Max Aaron SP:85.78 FP:173.41 Total: 259.19
5 Jeremy Abbott SP:89.93 FP:168.36 Total: 258.29
6 Ross Miner SP:82.25 FP:167.03 Total: 249.28
7 Douglas Razzano SP:74.01 FP: 159.41 Total: 233.42
8 Nathan Chen SP:76.20 FP: 154.79 Total: 230.99
9 Grant Hochstein SP:75.70 FP: 154.58 Total: 230.28
10 Richard Dornbush SP:79.24 FP:142.84 Total: 222.08
11 Alexander Johnson SP:68.46 FP:149.81 Total: 218.27
12 Sean Rabbitt SP:71.39 FP:139.85 Total: 211.24
13 Jordan Moeller SP:67.81 FP:138.19 Total:206.00
14 Timothy Dolensky SP:68.41 FP:124.97 Total:193.38
15 Patrick Rupp SP:56.29 FP:122.13 Total:178.42
Jason Brown
Jason Brown - US Nationals 2015 Free Skate
Congratulations on winning your first Nationals title !!!
It was so great to see his magical skating performance again - both programs !
I'm a big fan of him, was rooting him, so I could not watch his live and was away from our TV while he was skating because of nerves.
and when he finished the performances, I came back and saw the result and watched later.
He was strong mentally, in the situation where there were many expectation from audience and pressure from it.
We love both of his performances, especially his free program.
I got chiles watching it.
No matter what others say, I love his skating which has full of personality.
My feelings react honestly, it's not about theory.
I really think he has his original type of skating which doesn't look to be copying anyone.
He skates with variety kinds of music, but his original movements are always there.
This may be one of the reasons I always enjoy watching his skating.
I feel Jason has the most personality on ice nowadays in all the men's skaters.
In the USA men's skaters, until Jason Brown appeared , I thought Johnny Weir was the only skater who had full of personality on ice.
He was not just a graceful elegant skater, but was very original.
For other countries, Emanuel Sandhu, Jeffrey Buttle from Canada, Daisuke Takahashi from Japan, Stephane Lambiel from Switzerland, Evgeny Plushenko , Alexi Yagudin from Russia, and Brian Joubert from France.
We think they all have their own brand of skating style, like The Johnny Weir skating, The Emanuel Sandhu skating, and so on.
They all know the basics of movement and the basics of form.
Nowadays, there are many skaters who skate with graceful soft arm movements, but personality ?
I don't see skaters who have " The brand " style , except Jason Brown and also Tatsuki Machida was getting his own style , but sadly he has just retired.
about Jason's free skate,
Personally my husband and I still prefer his performance at Nebelhorn Trophy , because his expression looked more naturally connected to music there even though all the jumps were better in Nationals .
I think one of the parts of being an artist means one who has an original way, so in terms of skating, it would be a skater who has an original way and has personality besides connection to music with their mind and body and heart.
His body movements are really well-balanced and beautiful and has a big impact.
There was no quad jump but it was almost clean, only one of the triple axel jumps were under rotated.
I think he was well-deserved for gold medal.
About his costumes,
I think both of his costumes are matched with the theme of the music and programs.
It would be strange if he was wearing a business man type of costume with this imaginative free program.
He was becoming the character of the story.
It's a theatre and a show, not only a competition !
I thank you to Jason for giving us a lot of joy and excitement through the performance.
About scores, I feel that each country's scores can change based on how every other country is scoring their own top skaters .
All the countries want their top skaters to win worlds, so if other countries score highly, then every other country also scores highly as well, to try and be competitive with them.
Adam Rippon
Adam Rippon - US Nationals Free Skate 2015
It was really fantastic to watch him on fire and fierce both of his performances , SP and FS !
I especially love his free program performance.
One of the reasons is the music.
Liszt's Piano Concerto No1 is one of my favorite music.
I'm so glad he skated so great with full of passion with the music.
He looked like a completely different animal compared to 2014's Nationals.
Except for the 4Lz, he landed all the other jumps perfectly.
He has been working so hard but could not show his best in the competition many times, but he never gave up.
I was just very inspired by his strength and high energy especially besides his performances.
Congratulations on your magical performances and got the highest scores in the Free skate !!!
Joshua Farris
2015 US Nationals - Joshua Farris SP
I was so impressed with his improvement of his body movements through this competition.
When I first watched his skating, about 2 years ago, I felt his movements were like Patrick Chan and never interested in his performance except for his triple axel jump.
But now his body movements are well-balanced and make good artistic movements. He put emotion in every detail of it.
I think Jason was lucky because if Joshua didn't make the error which he did two double toe-loop, gold medal was Joshua's.
His quad toe-loop was full rotation even though he had minor landing error, and his quality of triple axel jump.
I like one of his spins which looks unique.
I think he is very talented , pick up things so fast.
Only thing lacking is his orginal way of skating . One of his spins is great but, I think he needs more personality on ice.
My husband said he is great, but didn't feel he wants to watch his performances over and over.
I feel grace is not enough, since there are many skaters who skate with graceful soft movements. It's just my thought.
Next season's Nationals will be very interesting.
But I'm very inspired by his talent.
I feel Jason and Joshua, both are artists in different ways.
Congratulations on winning your first senior Nationals medal !!!
Max Aaron
Max Aaron - US Nationals Free Skate 2015
Men's competition for this event was really awesome and
I also enjoyed with Max Aaron's free program performance Gladiator.
Unlike his short program, I thought the music Gladiator fit with him, and his movements were more with the music compare to his short program.
Great thing about his skating is his quad jumps and his speed.
I'm glad to see his quad salcow jumps are back and landed perfectly.
His musicality for his short program was off, his mind and body had no connection to music, I think that kind of music needs dancing skill.
But for his free program, he was doing good with the music gladiator and it was inspiring.
He put all his energy and did everything he could until the end, and after the music finished, he laid down on the ice from exhaustion.
I would give higher PCS for the performance.
He was great!
For other skaters,
I wanted to watch Alexander Johnson's performances, but his performance was not shown on NBC, and I still can not find the video of his performance...
Ladies
For ladies event, it was predictable for top 2 placements for me. Because Ashley Wagner got bronze medal in GPF and Gracie Gold was qualified in GPF even though she had to withdraw from it.
and seeing both of their faces and their expression in the Nationals before the competition started, Ashley Wagner looked quite confident and strong, so I felt she will win.
Gracie Gold looked nervous and didn't look she was on.
It must be hard to control their mindset to defend champion.
Besides, she is the most popular US ladies skater right now, and pressure and expectation must have been high.
So I was interested in who will get the third place which was unpredictable. The result was unexpected.
Result
1 Ashley Wagner - Total score : 221.02
SP : 72.04 FS: 148.98
2 Gracie Gold - Total score : 205.54
SP: 67.02 FS:138.52
3 Karen Chen - Total score :199.79
SP: 64.66 FS:135.13
4 Polina Edmunds - Total score :192.62
SP: 66.04 FS:126.58
5 Samantha Cesario - Total score :182.82
SP: 59.21 FS: 123.61
6 Mariah Bell - Total score : 180.25
SP: 57.35 FS: 122.90
7 Tyler Pierce - Total score : 174.90
SP: 60.28 FS: 114.62
8 Courtney Hicks - Total score : 174.33
SP: 65.01 FS: 109.32
9 Hannah Miller - Total score : 168.87
SP: 59.81 FS:109.06
10 Mirai Nagasu - Total score : 166.63
SP: 65.28 FS:101.35
Congratulations to all the medalists !
I thought Ashley Wagner skated her best ever performances.
I'm not sure her 3Lz +3T combo was full rotated, but she skated clean both programs, so really well deserved win.
Although, my favorite of her programs are still her Camile Saint Saen's Samson & delilah, because the choreography was much more impact and I love that music.
For this season's music, it's less impact for me except the ending part.
The choreography was not so memorable and doesn't have specially unique movements.
I don't think she is a natural artist, seeing her movements are not always naturally artistic and I don't see her original style of skating.
But Great thing of Ashley is her strong fighting spirit.
She killed it using her mind.
The mind is the source of everything to win a competition.
She has been working hard for a long time, experiencing many down times as well.
Good luck in the Worlds !
Gracie Gold didn't look she was " ON" before she skated.
Defending Champion must be hard, but I thought she did good job without getting melt down.
She is just gorgeous to watch and I often love her costumes taste. It's a shame, her skating doesn't have personality.
There is no text book or someone who can teach how to show your personality on ice. She just has to find "Gracie Gold skating " by herself.
and third place was taken by Karen Chen.
She is new to me, and another talented young skater from USA.
She attempted 3Lz+3T combination jumps even though second jump was counted as UR.
I thought she is a very speedy skater, she still skate like junior but I felt her skating has something impact.
Also she is still 15 years old, and how she will handle her growing time while body changes.
and my favorite ladies performances are
Polina Edmunds
Polina Edmunds US Nationals SP 2015
I just love watching Polina's beautiful movements.
I think she has the most personality on ice in the current USA ladies skaters.
Her skating is not just graceful, ballet style movements, but has her own style of movements.
Her SP tango's performance looked like a tango ballet.
I feel if she put more aggressive passion , it will be more close to real tango dance, but my husband and I really enjoyed her combination of tango and balletic movements.
For her free program, Peter pan,
I feel this Nationals's performance was the best. The peter pan music was less impact, especially ending part may better to have dramatic, upbeat sounds so that it gets more impress to audience and judges.
Just my thought.
My husband said her skating so graceful, even her falls ( which are not often ) are graceful.
I'm glad to hear that she was qualified to go to Worlds and 4CC !
Samantha Cesario
Samantha Cesario - US Nationals Free Skate 2015
She is the only skater who has been attempting Triple loop+triple loop combo jumps (?) even though second jump was counted as UR she skated clean with no fall or step out.
I think she also has her own style of skating, and has personality on ice.
This is why it's always fun to watch her skating.
I feel she is so talented to express her character of the music.
I think Polina and Samantha are the most artistic ladies skaters in the USA.
I feel all she needs may be Winner's mind set to succeed.
Hope she will find it .
I'm glad to hear that she was qualified for 4CC !
Ice dancing
Result
1 Madison Chock /Evan Bates - Total : 185.06
2 Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani- Total : 181.31
3 Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue - Total : 164.74
4 Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker - Total : 162.45
5 Stasia Cannuscio / Colin McManus - Total : 156.48
My husband and my favorite performance was Stasia & Colin's Free dance Danse Macabre !!!
Anastasia Cannuscio & Colin McManus US Nationals Free dance
They were awesome and had the biggest impact for us.
It had power, drama and beauty and art.
We watched it several times.
We also enjoyed with Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue's and Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker's free dance performances.
Congratulations to Chock and Bates on their first Nationals Gold ! ( just this was not my favorite performance ).
Music
I was glad that there were several my favorite music which were not used much in skaters programs before this season.
They are
Piano concerto #1 in E minor, op.11 by Frederic Chopin,
Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by Franz Liszt ,
Piano Concerto #1 by Franz Liszt !
When the music is great, it gets uplifting feeling.
Especially, it was so wonderful to see Adam Rippon skated awesome with Piano concerto #1 by Franz Liszt.
Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by Franz Liszt is always my all time favorite music and was always hoping someone will skate with this music on ice.
I'm glad someone finally used the music , although the orchestra they used was not so good one.
Chopin's nocturne # 2 is often used by many skaters, but I've never seen his Piano concerto #1 was used in the past.
It's a very very romantic beautiful elegant music so it doesn't fit for junior skaters. ( IMO )
Who is fit with the music ?
I would love to watch Johnny Weir skate to it someday with his refined elegant beautiful skating in ice shows.
I also love the short program music for Courtney Hicks . It's new to me , not a fan of her skating, but her combination jumps in her SP was quite impressive. That was the highest jumps I've ever seen in all the ladies skaters.
Ashley Wagner's free program's ending part of music " Show must go on " was great, too.
Jason Brown's free program music is also one of my favorites this season. and he skated fantastic with the imaginative choreography.
Hopefully, more skaters will use many kind of music which were not used often in the past.
Overall, my husband and I really enjoyed this season's Nationals competitions.
Thank you again to NBC !