Mid-May Figure Skating Updates

The Russians are shocked to see rules applied. SHOCKED.

The figure skating off season continues, and so does the off-ice drama. Here’s a quick round up of my favorite stories from this week.

The ISU named the Russian skaters allowed to try for “neutral athlete” spots at the Olympic qualifier event in Beijing in September… and there’s no approved Ice Dancers or Pairs.

In case you missed it, Russia is still banned from competing, but the ISU said they would allow them to submit competitors to be considered as “neutral athletes” for the Olympics. These athletes could then try to earn Olympic spots at the qualifying event in Beijing this fall. The ISU provided some pretty strict criteria to quality as neutral, including that the athlete could not have any evidence of supporting the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, accustomed to glancing at rules and shrugging and then doing whatever the heck they want, went ahead and submitted athletes who clearly attended Putin rallies.

To everyone’s surprise, including Russia, the ISU actually followed most of their own criteria and didn’t include any of the submitted Ice Dance or Pairs teams in their list of approved athletes. They did approve a teen girl who skates with Eteri, even though one of their criteria was that skaters could not have any association with anyone who had been involved in a doping suspension, so they weren’t 100% consistent in their application of their own rules… but still.

Predictably, the Russians are shocked… SHOCKED I say.

Grand Dame Tatiana Tarasova, known for over-the-top reactions, did not disappoint: “It makes you want to stop living after such decisions.” Stepanova/Bukin, the top Russian Ice Dance team, have taken to social media to play the victim card and appeal to the IOC to intervene on their behalf.

I do agree with them on one thing— they should have been given an explanation as to why they were denied. A detailed memo with screenshots of the Putin rally posts Ivan Bukin deleted from social media would have done nicely, I think.

Anyway… somewhere Allison Reed is breathing a sigh of relief. Her path to an Olympic Ice Dance spot just got easier. American Pairs are looking better for earning their third Olympic spot, too.

A Junior German Ice Dance team announced the end of their partnership this week, and it quickly devolved into messy social media drama.

Personally, I don’t get invested in Junior skaters. It’s too likely they’ll flame out before they make it to the Senior level. But there’s quite a bit of Internet grief around the end of Darya Grimm/Michail Savitskiy. They had a cult following as a non-powerhouse skating federation team that had potential to rise through the ranks based on their sheer talent.

Darya’s post seems to imply that she did absolutely nothing wrong but that maybe SOMEONE ELSE was having personal issues and didn’t want to practice that much.

It had nothing to do with my personal life but it still had personal issues which were coming from others. I am currently looking for a new partner who will have the same ambition, passion and love for this sport as I do and will be willing to practice as much as needed until we reach our goals

Michail’s post agrees that SOMEONE is having personal issues, but it’s not him!

.…my partnership with Darya Grimm has come to an unexpected and emotional end. She has recently taken a new direction both in her personal life and on the ice….This has been incredibly difficult to come to terms with. I was fully committed to the journey we were on, and the way this chapter closed has been painful…I want to sincerely wish Darya all the best as she begins this new chapter in her life, and I extend my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for her marriage.

Calling out her marriage set off Darya, who then took to Twitter to scold Michail for telling everyone about it. He responded through Instagram stories to apologize for bringing up something he thought was common knowledge because her husband was referring to her as his wife on socials. Sort of a sorry-not-sorry response. Then Darya got into some Twitter replies, including a heated exchange with Michail’s girlfriend. It’s clear there’s no love lost there. You can find screenshots on Reddit, if you’re so inclined.

Bottom line: two talented people with undeveloped prefrontal cortexes aired their dirty laundry and everyone saw. I hope they both find new partners and bring a steely-eyed new rivalry to German Ice Dance, which could use a little juice anyway.

KSU nullified the suspensions of Haein Lee and Young You, and they’re both officially cleared to compete next season.

If you don’t have Korean skating drama at the forefront of your memories— they were originally suspended related to an Italian training camp incident last summer in which an underage male skater came to their room after curfew. It seemed like he had a relationship with Haein Lee and it seemed like maybe Young You took pictures of them? The details are hazy to me, but I do remember Haein released a bunch of their texts to clear her name, and it was obvious they were soppy teens in love behaving as such. Anyway, everyone seems to have decided that it actually wasn’t that big of a deal after all, and both young women are officially cleared to compete in the Olympic season. Given that Chae-yeon Kim just had a breakout year and super star Junior skater Jia Shin will compete as a Senior now, the fight for the Korean Women’s Olympic team just got much more interesting.

Ilia Malinin met some actual famous people this week.

“Scared, Potter?”

Honestly, I would have said Amber Glenn is more like the symbolic single mom who works too hard, who loves her kids and never stops… but sure.

Would give almost anything for a Bravo-produced “Real Figure Skaters of New Jersey” series. Ilia is not from New Jersey, but he could visit.

You need to remember Ilia is considered TALL for a figure skater at 5’9. He should also seriously consider a, “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” short program if he’s not already. You can see him landing on the beats, can’t you?

Three Non-Figure Skating Things: Three things I want to buy for the summer but I’m trying to save money, so let’s see how long I resist.

• French Net Market Bags. These are supposedly ubiquitous with the Cool Girls of Paris right now. I’m most likely to cave in on this one because the price is not absurd. It feels like a great idea for a beach bag, right?

• A raffia bag. As if the aforementioned net bags aren’t enough, I’m lusting after raffia bags, which are more expensive than I realized. I’m trying to resist the pull of fast fashion, so the synthetic knock-off versions are not really an option. I made the mistake of clicking on some options linked on The Stripe and quickly remembered that I am definitely middle class.

• A new SPF shirt. Reader, I’m so pale I’m transparent. And my skin is so sensitive, that it starts to reject sunscreen and break out in a rash if I try to keep re-applying sunscreen all day. Staying inside and wearing SPF shirts are my best bets in the summer. I already have a couple of basic SPF button ups, but I want a new one that fits very specific vanity-related parameters. Off to google if this is covered by HSA…

What’s Next: I’m taking next weekend off for Memorial Day, but I’ll be back in the last weekend of May for any updates that happen over the next two weeks.