Pair Awards Results

[sasha_davidovna]

The Pairs Awards got by far the fewest votes of any of the categories, so I hope a few of you who maybe didn't feel knowledgeable enough to vote might check these results out and find some new favorite skaters and programs!

The winner of Best Pair is...

Comments

[gruskek]

Most of these please me greatly :D

Great job putting this together :)

[sasha_davidovna]

I agree! I knew we were off to a good start when my numbers #1, #2, and #3 teams got Best Overall in 1, 2, 3 order. :)

[ametalheart]

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze are the best pair ever. Also they are two of the most attractive human beings ever. My love for them knows no bounds. Anton shouldn't be runner up for best ass though or best looking. ;)

It's nice to see Zagórska & Siudek and Petrova and Tikhonov recognized as well.

There definitely is a lack of Artur Dimitriev and partners though.

Also I was there for T&M's fall. It was one of the worst things I have ever experienced. They are amazing for overcoming all of that.

Overall I am impressed.

[sasha_davidovna]

B & S are awesome and gorgeous. Pairs hasn't been quite the same for me since they retired. I do like plenty of the more recent teams, but Shen & Zhao are the only ones who've come close to matching that spark I had with B & S, and they were more of a slow build due to how weak artistically they were at first. B & S were love at first sight. :)

I agree about Dmitriev and was hoping someone else would nominate him for something. I always enjoyed his skating but he tends to be overshadowed by G&G for me.

Being there for T & M's fall must have been awful. I can barely watch it even knowing that she was fine (well, mostly) and went on to even greater success.

[ametalheart]

For me either. I enjoyed T&M, Petrova and Tikhonov, Siudeks and now S&S and V&T. But even though I quite like them they aren't B&S.

I wasn't there to vote otherwise I would have, haha. You did a great job though on all of this!

It was awful. They were my favorite at the time and just seeing her there not moving and Maxim distraught was awful. I cried at the arena. But thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it looked.

[thebadunkadunk]

Awesome to see the results! I know there weren't many votes but it greatly pleases me that Shen and Zhao won most artistic, as that's what they struggled with a lot throughout a good portion of their career.

That gif of them jumping is also so lovely.

Also yay Russians! Sadly I'm not a fan of many current Russian pairs, Kavaguti and Smirnov aside

[sasha_davidovna]

it greatly pleases me that Shen and Zhao won most artistic

There weren't really enough comments to do the "_skating's comments" thing like the others, but gruskek had a comment about that which I was really tempted to include because it was just so true: "They had to grow into their artistry but the end result was amazing." S & Z were adorable enough from the start to overcome my usual aversion to skaters who are skilled mainly on the technical side of things, and I was as proud as a mother hen when they found their artistry, even though I a)had nothing to do with it myself and b)am several years younger than either of them! It's funny how invested you get. :)

[thebadunkadunk]

Oh, you should have added it anyway! It's so accurate, and I have such respect for them for being able to put themselves out there and trying new things and working at their artistry so that it looks natural and not forced...I just love them so much.

[sasha_davidovna]

Okay, I went back and added it, and some others too.

[figure_skater18]

So happy to see G&G got so many votes! I was afraid that there would be too many youngins on here that have never seen any of their programs or anything! (Moonlight Sonata and that one Disney show they did (I think it was Cinderella) are two programs I clearly remember from childhood, and therefore, of course, hold a place in my heart!)

PS, awesome post!! Thanks!

[sasha_davidovna]

I nominated them all over the place for exactly that reason. :) They were fixtures of my childhood and my favorites forever. Sergei is one of the only celebrity deaths I've ever cried over.

[figure_skater18]

I was still too young to realize it when he died, but I read Katia's book probably 100 times between grades 7 and 9. It got me every time!

[eaweek]

I found out about Grinkov's death in just about the worst way possible. I was taking the subway to work, another commuter was reading the paper, and when he flipped the sports page around, I saw the article. I was so stunned. The whole rest of the day, it felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. He was just so young--28 years old. It just seemed so monstrously unfair.

[nijinska]

Wow, I agree with pretty much everything!
And yes, would have been nice to see Dmitriev senior somewhere in there, with either partner.

Amazing how everyone has such strong memories of G&G -well, maybe not amazing, they were indeed awesome! Here's mine: the very first thing I remember seeing on TV was their LP at Calgary Olys, the one with the blue outfits with flowers on them (pure 80's Soviet :P). I was 7 and I was entranced by it. This is what started my passion for figure skating, hence my icon of little Katia holding up her gold medal!! This is also the first thing I looked up on YouTube and the moment I saw the still photo I knew I'd found the right video and I was giddy with excitement at finally getting to see it again...