2026 Olys Team Event PBP Day 3 - When Your Bum Hits the Ice and Your Legs In the Sky - That's Errore!

Overall really good skating today.

Ellie & Danny were the highlight of the pairs event for me. I expected the precision of the Georgians and the overall package of the Japanese, but was not expecting an almost perfect Ellie & Danny. I was expecting nervous Ellie. Seeing them celebrating their skate and the team win was just great.

Kaori is of course the goddess and was so strong, particularly during the last music cut. Amber looked so nervous that first minute and then settled down. I worried that the whole social media/politics drama has rattled her.

Men was an amazing event. Matteo lay down a beautiful program, Stephen was better than I've ever seen him, Ilia looked so cool and relaxed, and Shun Sato was just phenomenal and was deservedly closer than I expected to Ilia.
 
What are people thinking, now?
I would still like it last so they could really enjoy with their team. Imagine the Italy House party tonight if this were at the end.

I’m not an elite athlete but I know I wouldn’t sleep tonight. Probably easier for Chock and Bates since they’ve won this before (although absolutely not the same experience).
 
One of the most exciting nights of skating I’ve ever seen. I was grumbling about the ticket cost yesterday but not today.

Highlights:
1. Rizzo! And Barbara Fusar Poli. And the whole Italian program that has come so far.
2. Kam and O’Shea
3. Ilia - despite the mistake he had fire, intensity, and total command of the ice.

I have no idea how I’m going to sleep tonight, and I need to work remotely tomorrow!
 
Didn’t think I would start the afternoon getting teary over Danny O’Shea and then again over Trennt Michaud, but here we are. I thought both teams really met the moment and it was very exciting.

Congrats to the USA, and also Japan for nailing it.

I also enjoyed the scrappy little Canadian team. They all skated about as well as they could and that’s all you can ask for.
 
All the hand shaking and hugging is making me nervous. I swear if any of those skaters got within 50 feet of a Finnish hockey player…
Apparently one US Hockey player was in isolation
But I could have misheard.
 
So I calculated total scores for the skaters who did both segments. Hopefully someone here didn't already do this, I haven't read through the threads... bolded the skaters who surpassed their SB score here, and added in where those scores would put them in the SB score list if they counted...

PAIRS
Miura/Kihara 82.84 155.55 = 238.39 (1st)
SB 225.21 (1st)


Metelkina/Berulava 77.54 139.70 = 217.24
SB 225.20 (2nd)

Conti/Macii 76.65 136.61 = 213.26
SB 223.28 (3rd)

Pereira/Michaud 68.24 134.42 = 202.66 (would be 9th)
SB 191.33 (15th)

Kam/O'Shea 66.59 135.36= 201.95 (10th)
SB 199.11 (10th)


DANCE
Chock/Bates 91.06 133.23 = 224.29 (would be 1st)
SB 220.42 (2nd)


Guignard/Fabbri 83.54 124.22 = 207.76
SB 210.34 (3rd)

Davis/Smolkin 78.97 117.82 = 196.79
SB 203.39 (7th)

Yoshida/Morita 68.64 98.55 = 167.19
SB 170.66 (40th)

WOMEN
Kaori Sakamoto 78.88 148.62 = 227.50 (1st)
SB 227.18 (1st)

Anastasiia Gubanova 67.79 140.17 = 207.96 (would be 14th)
SB 206.23 (14th)


Lara Naki Gutmann 71.62 126.94 = 198.56
SB 204.29 (16th)

Madeline Schizas 64.97 125.00 = 189.97 (would be 36th)
SB 188.60 (37th)



MEN
Ilia Malinin 200.03 + 98 = 298.03
SB 333.81 (1st)

Stephen Gogolev 171.93 + 92.99 = 264.92 (would be 13th)
SB 255.06 (20th)


Nika Egadze 154.79 84.37= 239.16
SB 273.00 (9th)
 
Unless their mother registered them in her hometown when they were still children, as is possible, they would have to live in Japan for five years to obtain citizenship.
I’m pretty sure they had dual citizenship until they had to choose. Not sure how it works if they give it up and decide they want to come back?
 
Unless their mother registered them in her hometown when they were still children, as is possible, they would have to live in Japan for five years to obtain citizenship.
At 22, they would have had to renounce US citizenship to keep Japanese citizenship through their mother or lose Japanese citizenship. Since they competed in multiple Olympics for the US, it wasn't a situation where they could keep both passports because they were under the radar.

In an interview from a while back, Kavaguti said that she gave up her Japanese passport to skate for Russia, but could apply to reclaim it after 10 years if she wanted. If both of the Shibs were no longer considered Japanese citizens at 22, they'd each be old enough to reclaim it for 2030. (She was too young for this year.) And if they needed to live in Japan, training with Cathy Reed would be a hell of a lot better than what they were doing this year, and I'm pretty sure they would have a robust social media presence still and probably replacement sponsors for any they'd lose by switching countries.
 
I much prefer Japan having Yoshida/Morita on their team than having Alex and Maia who never represented Japan before in their life to just jump ship to Japan just for a medal. Plus, if the Shibs want to be serious competitors again, then Alex needs some major anger management and therapy over his control issues so he can learn how to interact with people and get some real coaching, dance training, and choreography. Right now, it just seems like their whole process has a him strong-arming Maia and getting to do whatever he wants as Marina takes a paycheck.
 
I think the team event last would create additional problems. Skaters who won individual medals would have tons of media appearances and have a hard time with the team event. It could be a big let down for a skater to win an individual medal and then go out and biff it in the team event. I just don't think it would work that well.
 
At 22, they would have had to renounce US citizenship to keep Japanese citizenship through their mother or lose Japanese citizenship. Since they competed in multiple Olympics for the US, it wasn't a situation where they could keep both passports because they were under the radar.
It's my understanding that Japan can't really enforce this rule as to Japanese people born and living abroad. Alberto Fujimori is a case in point. He was born in Peru, but his parents registered in Japan. He went on to become President of Peru without relinquishing his Peruvian citizenship and then was treated as a Japanese citizen in Japan when he fled there to escape being arrested in Peru.

 
I much prefer Japan having Yoshida/Morita on their team than having Alex and Maia who never represented Japan before in their life to just jump ship to Japan just for a medal. Plus, if the Shibs want to be serious competitors again, then Alex needs some major anger management and therapy over his control issues so he can learn how to interact with people and get some real coaching, dance training, and choreography. Right now, it just seems like their whole process has a him strong-arming Maia and getting to do whatever he wants as Marina takes a paycheck.
Maybe Maia could just go to Japan and get a new partner. Not sure who but that would be ideal.
 
I also think the ISU has figured out a schedule that makes sense to have the team event start the Olympics.
I'd like to see a day between the TE and the start of the individual events. Put short-track on the menu for Monday, then start the first individual event on Tuesday.

My ideal schedule would look like this:

Day 0 (Friday) - TE Day 1
Day 1 (Saturday) - TE Day 2
Day 2 (Sunday) - TE Day 3
Day 3 (Monday) - Short-Track
Day 4 (Tuesday) - Pairs SP
Day 5 (Wednesday) - Short-Track & Men's SP
Day 6 (Thursday) - Short-Track
Day 7 (Friday) - FD or Pairs FS
Day 8 (Saturday) - Men's FS
Day 9 (Sunday) - Short-Track & RD or Pairs SP
Day 10 (Monday) - Women's SP
Day 11 (Tuesday) - Short-Track
Day 12 (Wednesday) - FD or Pairs FS
Day 13 (Thursday) - Women's FS
Day 14 (Friday) - Short-Track
Day 15 (Saturday) - Gala Exhibition
 
Egadz sleeves remind me of those ski jumping pants that were deemed illegal. :lol: (I assume the extra fabric is to allow for movement the routine demands.)


I just pooped into this thread to tell you how much I don't want to be in this thread. :lo:

I had been in the thread initially but I realized that all of the commentary was impacting my enjoyment of just watching the event. Something similar happened part way through the day yesterday.

During a break I popped back in very briefly, read a few more posts, and realized I had made the right decision. Pardon me for bothering to mention it.....

I had a nice day 😊
 
Not to be petty, but seeing Danny O’Shea with a gold medal makes me think of that mean-spirited blog post Tarah Kayne wrote about him and how she painted him as some head-in-the-clouds unrealistic dreamer who annoyed her too much. I know she had it really bad but I felt that piece was mean.
I missed that one.Weren’t they a couple for a while? That plus abuse from Dalilah Sappenfield might sour even the sunshiniest person.
 

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