The Skating Session

We streamed live and had some technical hiccups in the beginning. We also couldn't figure out how to end the live recording. We go over the Pairs Free Skate, and talk about our initial reactions to the fantastic Women's Competition. We talk about our Olympic experience in Milan, and answer some live chat questions!Watch us on Youtube!

Watch us on YouTube to watch the elements and see our breakdown!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJgyvASRfwTony and Thomas watched the free dance and have A LOT of opinions. We recorded the programs so we could deep dive them and get down to who the winners should be. Who came out on top? Was it right? What does it say about the scoring system? See it all here, and as always share your thoughts whether we (or the technical panel & judges) got it wrong.

Tony and Thomas bought last-minute tickets to the rhythm dance here in Milan. Flooded with questions last night about the results, we finally got some sleep and are ready to take on the commentary. Enjoy!

Tony and Thomas highlight day 1 of the team event and the start of the 2026 Olympic Games! The rhythm dance, pairs short, and women's short are all completed and give us a bette glimpse into the 5 teams that will qualify to the free skates. Have our favorites for gold and bronze changes? Do countries need to rethink their teams? It's all here!Link to Download Scoring Spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1d5o7COnlGudxd742w0Sqg4rLEXQwI9mHWatch us go through it on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVNf4b61kn4

Tony and Thomas review the three-part Glitter & Gold documentary that was released on Netflix earlier today. The series features a look at Chock & Bates, Gilles & Poirier, and Fournier Beaudry & Cizeron and their push from the end of the 2025 season into the Grand Prix series of this Olympic year. We share our favorite moments, the confusion over the direction that the documentary was originally planned to go, question why it's left at only three episodes, and more. In case you missed the social media announcement, we also share our big news regarding the Olympics at the start!

Tony and Thomas review the 2026 European Championships. Nerves or saving energy for the Olympics? Either way, the competition was a bit of a letdown in most of the disciplines. We review dance, pairs, men, and women and share some of our standout skates.. and of course, our thoughts on how the dance competition in particular played out. Did the judges get it right? Speaking of which, we give high praise to the judges in one discipline over using the system in the way it is supposed to be used— finally! Enjoy!

Watch on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/145468805(No YouTube this week, they don't want us showing elements!)Tony and Thomas complete recapping the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. As seems to be requested most heavily, we do a deeper dive into the dance event and compare the elements of the top teams against the all-but-forgotten about GOE scoring rubric. We share our opinions of the results between the top two and the heated battle for the bronze medal, and then briefly recap the women's competition. Enjoy!

Tony and Thomas are back on this “off week” in preparation for the Grand Prix Final. We have some updates on the response from our Finlandia judging video, including reactions around the Internet and through the ISU as well as a current competitor writing to us about all of it. We also opened up the forum this week to ask questions that you would like us to answer and discuss. Enjoy! Link to YouTube videos of edges: The Four Figure Skating TurnsThomas’ “Technical Panel” Youtube videos: @thetechnical panelOlympic qualifying document / SkatingScores charts:USFS Oly Selection CriteriaSkating Scores Women's ChartSkating Scores Men's ChartSkating Scores Pairs ChartSkating Scores Dance ChartISU Technical DocumentationThe Technical Requirements for 2025/2026Ice Dance Scoring Rules & RubricScale of Values

You know something is up when we break our normal upload schedule to bring you a special episode on the ice dance technical panel calling that ramped up last week at Skate America and has continued this week at Finlandia Trophy. Shawn Rettstatt, head of the ice dance technical committee, is the technical controller in both events. Although not the be-all end-all of the scores, we discuss some of the element calls we saw in the rhythm dance today. And for the millionth time, we beg for the complete overhaul the discipline needs.See it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/2DZ3Kx3HTIk

Tony and Thomas are moving right along with the Grand Prix series, this week with stop number four in Osaka, Japan for the NHK Trophy. A lengthy discussion about the dance event and the return of the Shibutanis keeps us over two hours! As always, we also highlight the pairs, mens, and women's competitions and share some of our favorite moments of the week. Enjoy, and please remember to subscribe and like!

Tony and Thomas stayed up all night both nights watching the Cup of China the second Grand Prix event of the season. For an underwhelming competition, we still managed over 2 hours of insights and opinions! Included are all four disciplines, the questionable call that kept Sui & Han on the podium in the pairs event, the technical panels and judges in the singles' events being in a different reality, Chock & Bates season debut, and plenty of other program details and protocol analysis.Includes Chock & Bates, Zingas & Kolesnik, Lopareva & Brissaud, Smart & Dieck, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Rinka Watanabe, Anastasiia Gubanova, Jia Shin, Rino Matsuike, Shun Sato, Daniel Grassl, Mikhail Shaidorov, Tomoki Hiwatashi, Boyang Jin, Jacob Sanchez, Junhwan Cha, Metelkina & Berulava, Conti & Macii, Sui & Han, Zhang & Huang, and more!

Tony and Thomas close out Skate to Milano with a full men’s free skate breakdown and an event‑wide wrap up. It is a rollercoaster of clean skates, near misses, and razor‑thin margins, all in a field so deep that great performances still fell short of Olympic tickets.Zooming out, Tony and Thomas sketch the early Olympic medal picture for the men, what this qualifier signals about PCS trends, and how quotas, citizenship clocks, and the placement of the team event could reshape the final lineup. There are throwbacks to 90s and 2000s coverage, notes on how the ISU has modernized the show, and a quick Grand Prix look‑ahead.Expect rulebook nerdery, clear scoring walk‑throughs, and warm, honest commentary with a little nostalgia.