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.