• Comments Off on Reality Surpassing Story for Stellato and Bartholomay
by Jacquelyn Thayer What might be overachievement for many new pairs — third in the short and fourth overall at their debut Nationals — is, for Deanna Stellato and Nate Bartholomay, a bit more like a storybook accomplishment. “For me…
• Comments Off on Deardorff and Settlage Begin With the Basics
by Jacquelyn Thayer Though Skate Detroit will mark a competitive debut for U.S. pair Winter Deardorff and Max Settlage, it’s also the culmination of nearly a year’s preparation. Settlage, whose six-season pairing with Madeline Aaron concluded last summer, faced the…
• Comments Off on What Price Skating Glory, Part 2: Institutional Funding
by Jacquelyn Thayer Editor’s Note: This article has been sourced through both public documents and interviews obtained as possible. For the sake of both accuracy and education, we welcome more detailed information on U.S. funding and will gladly update if…
• Comments Off on In the end, a beginning for Paul and Islam
Part 2 of a two-part feature; read part 1 here by Jacquelyn Thayer Athletes have spoken of the difficulty in moving from the concretely goal-focused regimen of the sporting life to the more mundane concerns of life after. But in…
• Comments Off on With Paul and Islam, the end is where we start from
Part 1 of a two-part feature by Jacquelyn Thayer Perseverance: few virtues are more celebrated in sport. For athletes grappling with injury and long odds, it becomes a mantra. But just as fundamental is the confidence to know when it’s…
• Comments Off on 2017 World Championships: Charted Territory
by Jacquelyn Thayer In the wake of the 2017 World Championships, an expanded look at the numbers beneath the outcomes. THE SCORESIf the 2017 World Championships — like any major skating event — told us anything, it’s how little confidence…
• Comments Off on Biechler and Dodge Find Calm in Senior Ranks
by Jacquelyn Thayer Any move up from the junior ranks in skating to senior can mean upheaval. For U.S. ice dancers Julia Biechler and Damian Dodge, bigger transitions were in the works. Though the team has long been based at…
• Comments Off on Top Teams Ready for Battle at Canadian Tire National Skating Championships
by Jacquelyn Thayer Ottawa is no stranger to a Canadian championships; chosen this year in part to recognize 2017’s Canada 150 celebration, it’s also hosted the national skating championships 14 previous times—including, most recently, 2014’s Olympic qualifying event, where several…
Subscribers to TFTI’s Weekly Protocol, and those who follow Twitter closely, will have heard by now many an opinion on certain of this season’s programs. But with this and with the diminution of the middle ranks particularly in dance since…
• Comments Off on Previewing the Not-So-Predictive Grand Prix Final
by Jacquelyn Thayer This week’s Grand Prix Final features a fair range of U.S. and Canadian teams. In pairs, Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford and Julianne Séguin and Charlie Bilodeau will make repeat appearances; in dance, last year’s three…