Called it in 2012 or "How I out-speedy-ed Speedy!

In all likelihood, most of you have already heard about the most recent open letter from Ottavio Cinquanta and the groundbreaking innovations he puts forward in it, all for the good of the sport, of course. Among other brilliant ideas, he advocates getting rid of the short programme.

Grays Sports Almanac 2000-2050: Savchenko & Joubert (Pairs Team)

An unlikely match?

After Worlds 2014 and the retirement of Robin Szolkowy, Aliona Savchenko was actively

looking for a partner to continue her competitive skating career.

Brian Joubert, although having effectively retired from singles skating, had in the past often hinted at wanting to take up Pairs skating. After secret try outs in the summer of 2014, Aliona and Brian teamed up with the goal to make the podium at the 2018 Olympics.

By popular demand: The LETDOWN-O-METER

When selecting pictures for the Olympic LETDOWN-O-Meter (the star indicating my current Olympic satisfaction), I didn't imagine, I'd ever have to change those polar opposites, which were so prototypical, they were almost absolute incarnations of what they were meant to represent. A week or so later, it seems, all I needed was some kind of perspective. Perspective very difficult to compute but still...

Sorry Dennis, you had a good

 free skate, but you are part of the podium.

Sochi 2014 - Men Singles Short Program

Much to my surprise, especially after Plushy's WD, the Men's short turned out to be quite enjoyable. It had drama, melodrama, good performances, surprisingly good performances, good judging, bad judging. Overall, it could have been much worse. Let's look at 5 short programmes, which are, in my opinion, among the most interesting and/or best performances of today.

Old age should burn and rave... - Evgeni withdraws from the Singles event

No, no, no, no, no! It wasn't supposed to end like this. It simply wasn't. Alas, Evgeni has just withdrawn, shortly before his SP, right after the warm-up had ended.

Sochi Tuesday - SFT struggling for a good story

Originally, this post was intended to continue our daily in-depth coverage of figure skating at the Sochi Olympics. However, as it turns out, nothing even remotely remarkable or news-worthy has happened in that regard, today.

In fact, leading scientists agree that the most surprising thing that happened on Sochi-Ice today, was the placing of this center guard stone, quite possibly to prevent the occurrence of a future take out. It was said that delivery and sweeping were of the most proficient kind and a true testament to the team's abilities.

Spot on!

Post Team Event Thoughts

The team event is over, the medals have just been awarded. What remains are very mixed feelings, with a sizebable quantum of skating fatigue starting to kick in.

Team Free - Plushenko wins the Men

Jason Brown, one of the few enjoyable things about the Men's.

This post gives me the opportunity to say something, I have been contemplating to say for quite some time:

I know, I have complained a couple of times in the past, but how the times have changed almost made me feel bad about it, so let me state officially: Canada is not the worst offender, when it comes to overscoring, not by far, it might still be in the top three, but it has found its equal in Japan and its superior in Russia, the latter showing at the last Cup of Russia in the Pairs how real inflation has to look.

Sochi Olympics: Even more Team Event SP

Advantage Davis and White. Experts say this is a stunning position.

Time is decidedly flying. Straight from the live stream to the rink, straight from the rink to SFT headquarters. Eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. After just those two days of Olympic skating, I feel the most inspired in a long time, and I was thusly compelled to indulge in both active and passive skating. As this portion of the event is practically old news by the time I'll have finished this post, I won't dwell too long on what transpired today.

Savchenko & Szolkowy change Short Program

The Pink Panther sneaks back onto the ice. I loved it!

German news report that Aljona and Robin are abandoning their When Winter Comes routine. The new short program will feature the music of The Pink Panther which they had previously used for their free program, during the 2010/11 season. The collaboration with André Rieu continues to remain somewhat problematic as his rendition of You'll never walk alone didn't make it onto Olympic Ice either. In 2010, after a couple of disappointing performances at the start of the season, S/S switched to a new program to Out of Africa.

Good luck to S/S. They will hopefully benefit from that move.

*ETA: Ingo Steuer is quoted hoping that the new short can increase their PCS by about 2 points.

Figure Skating Flagbearers - trivial trivia and a gallery

Javier Fernández of Spain.

Over the years, a lot more or less prominent figure skaters have been selected to carry their countries' flag during the parade of nations. Most people probably still remember Brian Orser being a flagbearer in 1988, or have at least seen pictures of it. Click "read more" to learn some exiting facts on figure skating and flag bearing. You won't regret it, and with all the knowledge you'll be sure to impress at the next tupperware party. (Pictures of this years' flagbearers appear in order of the parade of nations.)

Sochi Olympics: More Team Event SP

A puzzled Tigerman marveling at the scores.

If your Olympic day didn't start off with the Figure Skating Team event, it probably began with Mogul skiing. In case you were wondering, the name apparently derives from the Austrian "mugel" for "small hill". No, I didn't know that either. On to the team event, which offered lots of pleasing results, some good performances, and very few surprises.

Introducing: The LETDOWN-O-METER

A lot of things determine how enjoyable and satisfying the Olympics are. Performances and results being the major factors here. However, it's not all about your own favourites winning, or performing and placing well, it's also about not being totally at odds with all the overall results no matter what happens. And then there are those worst case scenarios that just can't ever be undone...

Evgeni goes to Sochi: Vincerò!

It is confirmed: Evgeni will be skating in Sochi. Truth be told, I was a little nervous. I even worked myself up over it, the day before yesterday, and wrote a "Evgeni didn't make it" post. I'm keeping that on hold, btw., just in case...

2014 Europeans: Men's Long Programme

Ladies and Gentlemen, your European Champion. Allowed to go to Sochi!

An utterly satisfying podium, a few promising skates, a number of bomby ones, empty programmes, and a repeat European Champion. What more could you possibly hope for?

2014 Europeans: The Gentlemen's Short Programme

2nd Day of the European Championships. Jump right in with me for some random thoughts (maybe even SP related) on skaters who are in the Top Ten after the Short Programme. If I do not comment on a skater, it's not reflective of their performance but rather a sign of my laziness.

Are minimum scores really a good idea?

Ireland's Clara Peters was unsuccessful in her final bid to meet the minimum technical score for the European Championships. She is not the only skater who will have to sit out a major event because of this, but her case is especially unfortunate as she missed the SP standard by a mere 0.03 points. That hurts. Peters has been improving steadily though not rapidly, and I would have liked to see her get a chance to compete in Budapest.