Finnish skating news, 2018 onwards

nimi

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New season, new thread...

Finlandia Trophy announced the line-up earlier today.
Finnish entries: Virtanen, Galay, Lindfors, Peltonen, Törn/Partanen, Turkkila/Versluiss + 4 synchro teams

Emmi, Viveca and the 2 dance teams currently make up the group "Beijing 2022" that receives funding from the Olympic Committee: https://www.stll.fi/maajoukkue/maajoukkue-esittely/

In junior news, Vera Stolt placed 10th at JGP Kaunas today (49.84, 86.72, 136.56)
https://www.stll.fi/2018/09/07/vera-stoltilta-lupaava-kauden-avaus/
SP: https://youtu.be/GjRIZCUunho
FP: https://youtu.be/cZcfnCGTq2M

Last week, Sofia Sula placed 12th at her JGP event (42.30, 77.33, 119.63)
https://www.stll.fi/2018/09/01/sofia-sula-kaynnisti-jgp-kauden/
SP: https://youtu.be/zbwQMam_GwQ
FP: https://youtu.be/-ylmCDNO3pA

ETA: The current Helsinki GP line-up includes Viveca + TBD for ladies, Valtter for men plus the 2 dance teams.
 
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Sylvia

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@maija posted the names of Team Finland 2018-2019 (Single Skating) in the previous Finnish news thread when they were announced back on May 9, 2018 -- link: https://www.stll.fi/maajoukkue/maajoukkue-esittely/yksinluistelu/

Men: VIRTANEN Valtter, KeLS

Ladies:
CEDER Linnea, EsJt
KARHUNEN Laura, EsJt
LINDFORS Viveca, EsJt
PELTONEN Emmi, EVT
RUOKONEN Enja, TapTL
STOLT Vera, PTL
SULA Sofia, TL
VÄLITALO Selma, OLK
VÄÄNÄNEN Milania, PTL

Ice Dance (3): https://www.stll.fi/maajoukkue/maajoukkue-esittely/jaatanssi/
Cecilia Törn / Jussiville Partanen
Juulia Turkkila / Matthias Versluis
Monica Lindfors / Juho Pirinen

https://www.stll.fi/maajoukkue/nuorten-maajoukkue/
"The Youth National Team is intended for talented skaters of up to 16 years of age (by the end of the competition period by 1 July, not yet 16 years). The choices for the group are made annually for one season at a time.
During the period 2018-2019 the youth team will include":

Ladies:
FEDOROVA Yulia, EsJt
HELSKE Mai, ETK
KARP Minea, TapTL
LINDFORS Fanny, EsJt
LIUKKONEN Tilda, LTL
STOLT My, PTL
HEIKKINEN Minttu, KuLS
HENTUNEN Olivia, KuLS
LISKO Olivia, TapTL
PAJULA Frida, LRT
RIEKKINEN Janni, KuLS
SIVU Silja, TapTL

Men:
KRESTYANNIKOV Jari, TapTL
LINDFORS Matias, EsJt
 

Sylvia

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Emmi PELTONEN was (finally) added to the Grand Prix Helsinki ladies' grid on 21 September, joining Viveca LINDFORS, Valtter VIRTANEN and Juulia TURKKILA / Matthias VERSLUIS.

https://www.stll.fi/2018/09/21/suomalaiset-finlandia-trophy-espoo-gp-helsinki-kilpailuissa/
Sentence at the end of the "Grand Prix Helsinki 2.-4.11.2018" section:
Jäätanssijat Cecilia Törn ja Jussiville Partanen eivät osallistu alkukauden kilpailuihin. Pari on ilmoittanut pohtivansa yhteisen jäätanssitaipaleen suuntaa ja jatkoa.

Rough (accurate?) translation: Ice dancers Cecilia Törn and Jussiville Partanen do not participate in the competitions of the season (ETA: the first part -- see Finnice's post below). The couple has announced that they are contemplating the direction and the continuation of their career.
 
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Kelvster

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Oh no! Cessiville were enjoyable to watch ... they were so close to making the Olympiks as well ...
 

Sylvia

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Congratulations to Viveca Lindfors - BRONZE at Finlandia Trophy today, landing 6 clean triples!

ETA:

3 Viveca LINDFORS FIN 187.19 6 (57.69) 2 (129.50)
5 Emmi PELTONEN FIN 172.02 4 (60.48) 8 (111.54)

Article in Finnish: https://www.aamulehti.fi/urheilu/vi...usivat-liki-laura-lepiston-tasolle-201239616/

Google translated excerpt:
It's an improvement of more than 20 points at Lindfors' previous record points and the second-best ever Finnish quotation. More points from Finns have just skinned Laura Lepistö , who recorded 187.97 points at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
 
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AngieNikodinovLove

Frangi & Piazza & Paul & Hektor & Theo. Oh My! 😝
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How cool is it to see a Finnish woman start to make a push to the top again?

Viveca came in second in the free at Finlandia and had the highest technical, even beating Liza!

Really looking forward to seeing her this season!

Even Emmi with 112 in Free. She even has very respectable PCS scores!
 

maija

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This was a very good day in Finnish figure skating:
Viveca Lindfors: 3. and new record!
Emmi Peltonen: 5. and new record!
Ice Dance: Juulia Turkkila - Matthias Versluis 6. and new record!

I have never seen Viveca so happy after her skate!
 

alexikeguchi

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I love her reaction at the end, and it was a lovely program for her. I wasn't familiar with her skating before but will definitely look out for her performances from now on. I too hope that Finnish skaters can get back on the map, and it's a wonderful opportunity that there will be a GP and host picks available for them this year. I hope all the skaters can duplicate or even better their performances in front of another home crowd. :cheer2: Finnish skaters and fans!
 

Kelvster

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Yes, what a performance from Viveca!

Emmi is so sophisticated and elegant though ... it's just that the jumps are always hit and miss (has she ever landed the flip?) Sigh ...

The Finnish men though ... em ... as much as I love Dr. V, he should just forget about the 3A. 4T looks rotated and he can probably hit it occasionally. It's great that he and the others can compete in a senior GP. What a fantastic opportunity!
 

nimi

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^ re: the Finnish men… A twitter user translated a recent article with info about coaching changes and stuff: https://twitter.com/heihei_0422/status/1047909130000904193

excerpts:
Valtter Virtanen and Roman Galay represent Finland in the men's competition. Virtanen has moved from Obertsdorf to Jyväskylä, where he works one or two weeks a month in the local hospital. The rest of the time he practices in Switzerland. His new coach is Ferran Cuni Baulenas.

Valtter has high goals outside the rink as well: he will defend his doctoral thesis on pediatric surgery in February.

Roman spent last season recovering from an injury and has moved to train most of the time in Saint Petersburg. His coaches are Evgeni Rukavicin and Sirkka Kaipio. After becoming a high school graduate and a sports instructor he began to study coaching at a university in St. P.

So yeah, Valtter and Roman didn’t have a great outing (to say the least), but considering Roman has had a long break from competition due to injuries it was great to see him hit that 3A combo in the beginning of the LP even though the rest of the program was pretty messy. As for Valtter… When they interviewed him for TV after the long, he was visibly upset with his performance and was, like, ”well it can hardly get worse than this so the only way is up I guess” (paraphrasing here). Chin up Dr. Virtanen!


I already celebrated Juulia&Matthias over at the dance hall thread. Great job delivering good performances in front of the home crowd & getting those valuable ranking points!
 

nimi

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2017 & 2018 Junior men's champion Benjam Papp, now 19, is listed on IPS for pairs: http://icepartnersearch.com/showbio.php?i=6371

He's now 6 feet tall?! He was listed at 175 cm in his ISU bio last season: http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00102403.htm
Whoah. But not that surprising, considering his sister Beata -- who retired from competitive skating a year or two ago and went on to compete for the Miss Finland title -- is at least 175 cm tall...
Good luck to him!

(I wonder what Liuba Efimenko is up to? Her instagram bio still says "pair figure skater" and I don't think she's on ISP...)


Tidbits from a recent STLL article about the Helsinki GP:
- Viveca says that her successful Finlandia performance has given her more confidence, but she feels she still has a lot of room for improvement in her program(s). After Finlandia she's spent some time in St Petersburg training.
- Emmi was going to train in USA again in Oct/Nov like she's done previously, but getting the GP spot changed her plans. She's been training in Finland and in Switzerland instead. Feeling positive and whatnot.
- T/V are starting to feel like a real ice dance team nowadays. They say that experiencing less frustration in their day-to-day practice and working better together as a team is helping them improve their performance ability.
- Dr Virtanen is having considerable challenges combining his skating with his work life. He did manage to squeeze in a visit to Ballester in Switzerland this past month but he's been mostly been his own coach.


ETA: Oh, I just saw that T/V competed in Minsk a couple of weeks ago and placed 2nd. The field was weaker and their scores were lower than in Finlandia (they lost to Evdokimova/Bazin after beating them in Finlandia) and apparently Matthias fell in the RD but still, it was a positive experience and a good result for them. Also, the arena is the same were Euros are going to be held. Juulia says in the article that they got a personal invitation to compete in Minsk only a few days before the start of the competition and it was a last minute decision to go there. Interesting...
 
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nimi

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Roman Galay skated a pretty good short in Tallinn earlier today. The opening 3A was clean with +GOE (yay!) and although there he ran into some problems later on (scratchy 3F2T instead of a 3-3 and some spin level issues), he kept it together and stayed on his feet and got 7th place with respectable 65.63 points. No video on YT yet but here's the protocol.

In other competition news: Juulia&Matthias competed in Warsaw Cup last weekend and got 3rd place and a new PB (164.91). This was already the 6th(!) time they've competed internationally this season: 3 CS, 2 IC, 1 GP. Next up: Nationals in mid-December.

ETA: Viveca just skated her SP in Tallinn. She landed everything and the spins and st sq looked solid too. 63.56 points
 
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Amantide

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Apparently Kiira Korpi has published a book about her skating career.
There seems to be some very interesting bits. She openly expresses some bad sides of the figure skating, like; eating disorder, bullying, abusive domineering coaches and even sexual harassement.:shuffle:
 

nimi

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Apparently Kiira Korpi has published a book about her skating career.
There seems to be some very interesting bits. She openly expresses some bad sides of the figure skating, like; eating disorder, bullying, abusive domineering coaches and even sexual harassement.:shuffle:
I haven't read Kiira's book but she talked about it in her interview with Tony Wheeler last month: https://youtu.be/qkHJTuqJmUs

ETA: Viveca just skated her SP in Tallinn. She landed everything and the spins and st sq looked solid too. 63.56 points
Viveca got 121.86 for her FS and 185.42 overall, which kept her in 3rd, so a second CS bronze medal for her this season!
Good job! :cheer2:

She popped her flip and stepped out of her 3S but didn’t let that affect the overall performance. I don’t particularly like this piece of music but she looks really committed to performing it and selling it, and apparently the judges appreciated the performance aspect as well: her FS PCS were the 4th highest (59.68).

Earlier today I stumbled upon the Christmas Cup YT stream and saw Milania Väänänen skate her SP in Jr girls. She placed 4th with 48.52 points. Looks like she doesn’t have a 3-3 or 3F yet (she did 3T2T, 2F, 2A) but it was a clean skate with nice musicality & expression and good spins. Really pleasant to watch! (SP protocol)
Jenni Saarinen and Vera Stolt will skate in the senior category later today.
The FS for Jr girls is tomorrow afternoon and seniors skate on Saturday afternoon. No Finnish boys or dancers in this comp. (schedule)
 

Sylvia

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^Sylvia, team Cessiville skips the beginning of the season. We will see if they return. Jussiville is from Savo, a part of Finland where decision-making is hard. (I am frpm there, too!)
Re-posting this news from the Ice Dance Hall thread:
Haven't seen it reported yet but Cecilia Torn and Jussiville Partanen have split per Skating Finland twitter
"As most of you have already figured out, Finnish @ceciliatorn and @jussiville Partanen have split up as Ice Dance couple. We wish the best of luck for both & hope to have them back in any kind of skating business - anytime. #skatingfinland"
Viveca got 121.86 for her FS and 185.42 overall, which kept her in 3rd, so a second CS bronze medal for her this season!
Good job! :cheer2:
:)
 

Kelvster

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Sad to hear about the splitting of Cessiville. Wonder what caused the split ........

And Kiira's new book seems to contain juicy details. She seems so positive and composed and perfect all the time! It would be interesting to hear about the imperfections in the skating world from her ........
 

nimi

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Sad to hear about the splitting of Cessiville. Wonder what caused the split ........
The STLL article about their split basically says that the Olympic season was a big disappointment for them: first there was the failure to qualify for the Olys, and then they didn't do as well at Worlds as they had hoped for. So, last spring they felt they needed to take some time off and to reconsider their future. When they started practicing again after the break, they felt like they had lost the spark, which led to the decision to part ways. Jussiville says he'd like to continue skating if a suitable partner comes along. Cessi says she's still undecided about what her future involvement in skating will be.
 

Finnice

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I really hope Jussiville will find a new partner. He told me once how much he practiced outside edge when switching to pairs. Let's hope he has some use for the skill.

RE: Kiira's book was very depressing reading. She did her best to be positive troughout her competitive career, but inside she was eaten out by different demands.
 

Kelvster

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Finnice, would you mind telling us a little bit more about Kiira's book (for those of us who don't read Finnish)? I wanna know about who those bullies were in particular...

I also always wondered about her relations with the other Finnish skaters ... she seems to be friendly with Laura Lepisto, but I wonder how she got on with the others (e.g. Susanna Poykio, Alisa Drei) :D
 

Finnice

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^@Kelvster, Kiira was always the cheerleader! She had good relations with all the other Finnish skaters, she is a person who likes people.

But she felt not achieving enough, and that she let people down. You know, the good girl syndrome.
 

alchemy void

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I was really impressed with Jenni Saarinen at the Christmas Cup this weekend. She finished 2nd, scoring 147.16 points, which I think beats her "historical" personal best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tLuE2KWoPs

She is attempting ambitious jump content: 3t3t in the SP, and 2 flips, a lutz, and 2a3t in the LP. She had a fall and a couple stepouts in the LP, but she went for everything--no doubles! The flips were awesome, and the 2a3t was close.

She wasn't attempting lutz or flip the past couple seasons IRC.

I think this is easily the best she has looked since her promising junior career in 2013-2014. I've always been a fan, but she hasn't competed much or well since then. I'm excited what the rest of the season has in store for her. :cheer:
 
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AngieNikodinovLove

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What do you all think of Emmi's skating?

I keep rewatching her SP from Finland. I just love her skating.

So much Speed into her jumps and in her combo great flow between both jumps. The landings tho on her jumps need more control.

My favorite part of Emmi is how she moves her arms and upper body. That kind of skating I could watch all day! I think even the USA commentator (Ryan B?) said the same thing.
 

Kelvster

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Emmi's skating is beautiful! She's so sophisticated! Upholding the Finnish tradition very well.

Viveca Lindfors is not so "Finnish" to me ... good powerful jumps but lacks finesse ... I wish her well though. It feels as though she wants to prove herself to the ppl ...

I hope that Emmi, Viveca and Jenni can all create another golden age of Finnish figure skating ...
 

Spun Silver

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What do you all think of Emmi's skating?

I keep rewatching her SP from Finland. I just love her skating.

So much Speed into her jumps and in her combo great flow between both jumps. The landings tho on her jumps need more control.

My favorite part of Emmi is how she moves her arms and upper body. That kind of skating I could watch all day! I think even the USA commentator (Ryan B?) said the same thing.
She is completely exquisite! She has everything but reliable jumps -- more so than most skaters of which that is said.

I like Lindfors very much too. She may not move as beautifully as Peltonen but she seems very well-trained with strong presence. I am happy to see two excellent Finnish ladies and would love to see them conquer those jumps. Haven't seen Jenni since her return.
 

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