'25 US Nats: TODAY!
When to watch, how to watch, and what to watch for
Alright. It’s go time. The Senior competition starts around 5 PM CT/6 PM ET. I’m planning grab something warm and cheesy for dinner and settle in for a cozy evening of spangles and spiraling. And figure skating.
To see all of my previews and podium predictions: Pairs, Women, Ice Dance, Men.
And just for fun, some other predictions/things to watch for:
One of the Ice Dance bronze medal contenders will fall on a lift. The Kiss-And-Cry will be awkward.
Someone will tell Andrea Joyce, “I just want to skate like I do in practice.”
Rainbow flags waving in the audience when Amber Glenn takes the ice.
Johnny’s hair will be roughly as tall as a can of LaCroix.
Gabriella Papadakis, the French Ice Dance gold medalist who will be commentating Ice Dance for the first time in the US, will say something critical of the current presidential administration and Terry Gannon will scramble to cover it up.
Tara will find a way to bring up how young she was when she won Nationals.
Tara will also call someone, “a little jumping bean.”
One of the men will skate in a hoodie. It still counts if it’s Ilia’s fake trompe-l’oeil hoodie.
Someone will pick up a giant stuffed avocado from the ice after they skate.
Benoit Richaud, Bradie’s choreographer/coach, will show up in your dreams this weekend as the villain.
What do we think— two vampire themed programs? Three? Everyone wants to be Deanna Stellato, as they should.
Notice how many programs pay tribute to “America” in some way, even if it’s subtle. With Worlds in Boston this year, it’s smart to pander to the crowd a little, even if you are already American. Example: Madison Chock will be dressed as the Empire State Building.
Alysa Liu will flash both the peace sign and do the little tiny heart sign with her thumb and index finger. You will be confused when she smiles— how does she still have braces? Except she doesn’t. It’s a lip piercing. Sub-prediction: Her coaches make her take it out for Nationals to appease the more conservative judges.
Look for Charlie White and Scott Moir to hang out at the boards together during Ice Dance warm ups.
While you’re at it, look for Scott and Madison Hubbell to be in the kiss-and-cry with their skaters. Both accustomed to big scores, they will look unimpressed with whatever the judges give.
Watch for Owala bottles in the kiss-and-cry. They’re allegedly the new trendy water bottle, which is upsetting to me because I had one before they were cool and I don’t want anyone to think I’m trying to be cool with my water bottle. They just work really well and don’t leak.
Murder Eyes alert— pay attention because the following skaters have lasers in their eyes: Bradie Tennell, Caroline Green, and Madison Hubbell (coach, not skater, but still counts).
Will any commentator allude to the rash of weddings for the ice dancers in Colorado Springs? My money is on Ashley Wagner to say something lightly passive aggressive about it, but Terry Gannon is occasionally known to be surprisingly direct about controversies.
Coach Coat Watch: Some of these coaches are divas and the see the kiss-and-cry as their personal runways. I like to track the flashy winter wear. For the most part, the less influential the coach, the more interesting the outfit. The more influential the coach, the more likely they are to wear neutrals or sweatpants. For example— If Rapheal Artunian shows up to support his skaters— I predict he won’t— he will be in a Team USA track jacket, a baseball cap, and a frown.
What are your non-podium predictions? Leave a comment!
To Watch:
If you’re in the US, NBC is airing all competition and some practices between their broadcast channels and Peacock. It looks like Johnny and Tara are on the main stage while Ashley Wagner and Ben Agosto are doing the World Feed. If Peacock gives a choice between the two, I’ll probably switch back and forth. I suspect Ashley and Ben will give better technical commentary, but I like it when Johnny is absurd.
If you’re not in the US, I would suggest checking out the options on So You Want to Watch Figure Skating.
To Engage:
For actual technical skating commentary: Jackie Wong on Twitter , Threads, Blue Sky. Check his website for all of his previews of each discipline.
You’re welcome to follow along with me on social media, though I’m not that consistent about commenting while I’m watching an event live: The Nice Capades Instagram or The Nice Capades Threads (where I have never once posted a single thing, but you never know.) I’m also now on Blue Sky as @thenicecapades. I don’t ever post on Twitter anymore, but I do lurk there because so much of the figure skating community is international and they don’t have access to all of the other social platforms, yet.
Blue Sky has a neat feature where you can follow a curated feed. Some very nice skating fan created a figure skating feed that pulls together all posts with the figure skate emoji or event hashtags.
And I can’t recommend Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon’s podcast, The Runthrough, enough.
What’s Next: Back this weekend for a debrief and a news round-up!
Tara will remind us how young she was when she won Nationals while Alysa is skating.
Tatiana Tarasova won’t be there, but someone at FSUniverse once noted her presence in her “zoo of coats.”
Do we really need two giant AmLactin bottles in the kiss-and-cry?
Shout out to Ben Agosto for the number of very carefully neutral, nothing-but-the-facts statements he made about the rash of marriages from Colorado! "This couple recently were married." "They married two days after her seventeenth birthday"--can't argue with that because it's a fact and he said nothing more about it, but the fact that he said that and just left it there like the stinking turd it is gave it even more impact.