Inside Skating

There's this beautiful serenity in the practice rink, with the last group of women refining their free skates before the actual event tomorrow, and when Kaori goes through her program, and Je ne regrette rien fills the arena, tears stubbornly say: We want out, let us out.

He got stuck into a rut. And how much we hate the fact that it happened.

There's definitely a shift here, we noticed it yesterday at the women's press conference too - and we hope it continues. It feels good, it feels heartwarming, it feels empowering for all athletes.

And the trend of having meaningful press conferences here in Prague, at #WorldFigure, continued with the men's one after SP - mental health, avoiding burnout, finding balance in between skating and, well, being a human and not being defined by results, good or bad.

We are happy to report - for all of you, Adam Hagara's fans out there - that Adam got his black puma after all, with Tomas Verner's precious help. And, yes, there's one giant puma, 130 cm no less.

Talking to people around - and you'll be happy to know they found #AleksandrSelevko to be the highlight of the men's short program here in Prague.

And then there's Shun Sato, in a very close 4th.

There you go. Men's SP at #WorldFigure here in Prague. And #AleksandrSelevko does it again, he's on the podium after SP, just like in the Europeans.

Shun Sato's middle name is Consistent, is Trustworthy, is Praiseworthy. We are beyond grateful we have Shun Sato in our little skating world.

Thousands of hearts in O2 arena stopped for a second when Yuma Kagiyama missed that entrance into the triple Axel - and we can only imagine what was happening with Yuma's heart. But listen, if this is not a masterclass of skating skills, we don't know what skating skills are.

The noise is deafening when they announce Ilia's name. And it's the same when he finishes (we may need to check our ears after that :). In between those moments, there's Ilia's own world, and we're just living in it.

Utter brilliance from Adam at #WorldFigure

This arena is on fire at the end of Adam Siao Him Fa's incredible short program - this right here is World champion material, hear us say it.

Kevin Aymoz is a skater of contrasts, and this program feels like a mirror of him - and in Prague that mirror shined bright, and we love when that happens.

Not a good day for Nika Egadze, but remember the season has been long and energy-consuming - and, at the end of the day, Nika is still the European champion, he'll take it from here.

Kao Miura needs to make friends, needs to make peace with his overexcitement - he just needs to, for his own sake, for all of us sake. Once he does that, he WILL conquer the world, we are sure.

Lukas Britschgi really knows how to play with the audience - and this short program works so well with  the performer that Lukas is. The perfect stage for it, at #WorldFigure.

Adam Hagara feels like home in Prague, so much support he receives. And we have been warned he would receive a giaaaant plush - so where is the pluuuuush? A lot of effort has been put into introducing it into the arena 😃

Stephen GOGOLEV 🇨🇦 94.38 “I feel great. I was pretty comfortable and was able to perform the way I wanted to.” On his consistency this season: “I think a lot played into it. Me being healthy this year – no significant injuries that hold me back. Obviously, working hard and consistently training every day. Also I began working quite close with Benoit [Richaud]. These are the biggest factors.” On the best moment of the season: My free program at the OG – I did my personal best for free and personal best in total during the individual event. I was quite happy to achieve that. The team event was a kind of practice towards the individual event. Or at least mentally I was trying to think about it like that. It is still a competition, you still get the nerves, but it calmed me down after team event at the Olympic Games. It definitely helped me to prepare for the individual event – you have to skate at the arena with the same environment, crowd, it prepared me for the whole experience of the arena. On the possibility to medal: Honestly, no. I don’t think about any kind of placement results. My goal for every competition is to perform the best I can and just enjoy and have fun. #WorldFigure #FigureSkating

Ah, these are Jacob Sanchez's first Worlds - and he made quite an entrance! Loved that skate.

Ah, we have been spoiled with Aleksandr Selevko's Kiss short program this season - it's an absolute hit, and he skated it like one in Prague, at #WorldFigure.