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© Tony Wheeler & Thomas Vu 2025
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Hosted by lifelong figure skating fans Tony Wheeler and Thomas Vu, The Skating Session dives deep into the world of competitive figure skating with sharp analysis, historical context, and a millennial lens. From dissecting Grand Prix assignments to unpacking Olympic rule changes and iconic comebacks, Tony and Thomas bring decades of fandom and a critical eye to the ice. Whether you're a seasoned fan or a returning viewer from the golden age of the 90s, this show offers smart, opinionated, and informed commentary on the sport’s past, present, and future.
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40 Episodes
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We streamed live and had some technical hiccups in the beginning. We also couldn't figure out how to end the live recording. We go over the Pairs Free Skate, and talk about our initial reactions to the fantastic Women's Competition. We talk about our Olympic experience in Milan, and answer some live chat questions!Watch us on Youtube!
What was that men’s free skate? Tony and Thomas were in the arena and still haven’t recovered from it. We highlight that event (several days after the fact) and the pairs short program that started so wonderfully for the teams.
Watch us on YouTube to watch the elements and see our breakdown!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJgyvASRfwTony and Thomas watched the free dance and have A LOT of opinions. We recorded the programs so we could deep dive them and get down to who the winners should be. Who came out on top? Was it right? What does it say about the scoring system? See it all here, and as always share your thoughts whether we (or the technical panel & judges) got it wrong.
Tony and Thomas were gifted tickets to the men’s short program and recap the exciting night at the 2026 Olympic Games!
Tony and Thomas bought last-minute tickets to the rhythm dance here in Milan. Flooded with questions last night about the results, we finally got some sleep and are ready to take on the commentary. Enjoy!
Tony and Thomas highlight day 2 of the team event and then have to go straight off into packing for Milan. Today featured the men's short program, confirmed the top 5 teams to the free skates, and began with the free dance. Shame on us for counting Canada out of making the final! Does anything change by Ilia Malinin announcing he will skate the free skate tomorrow? It's all here.
Tony and Thomas highlight day 1 of the team event and the start of the 2026 Olympic Games! The rhythm dance, pairs short, and women's short are all completed and give us a bette glimpse into the 5 teams that will qualify to the free skates. Have our favorites for gold and bronze changes? Do countries need to rethink their teams? It's all here!Link to Download Scoring Spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1d5o7COnlGudxd742w0Sqg4rLEXQwI9mHWatch us go through it on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVNf4b61kn4
Download the spreadsheet we used to try this on your own!2026 Olympic Team Event Simulator by the Skating SessionTony and Thomas give you two videos in less than 24 hours! Today we go in depth with our own simulations of the 2026 Olympic figure skating team event, including our rationales, our most important segments to look out for, which skaters may be asked to do double-duty across both segments, and share our final point totals. Spoiler: we have different winners.Watch us on YouTube to see us do this live!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCQxU60EqwU
Tony and Thomas review the three-part Glitter & Gold documentary that was released on Netflix earlier today. The series features a look at Chock & Bates, Gilles & Poirier, and Fournier Beaudry & Cizeron and their push from the end of the 2025 season into the Grand Prix series of this Olympic year. We share our favorite moments, the confusion over the direction that the documentary was originally planned to go, question why it's left at only three episodes, and more. In case you missed the social media announcement, we also share our big news regarding the Olympics at the start!
Tony and Thomas review the 2026 Four Continents Championships. Some skaters are wild by skating here and then heading to the Olympic in less than two weeks! The most perfect result ever in the women's event? Maybe. The best use of PCS ever in an event? Definitely not. We review all of the disciplines giving a rundown of the top skaters. Tony is also trying to build up The Skating Session Instagram account, so please follow? Coming up after this, expect heavy coverage of the Olympic Games with new videos every single day!
Tony and Thomas review the 2026 European Championships. Nerves or saving energy for the Olympics? Either way, the competition was a bit of a letdown in most of the disciplines. We review dance, pairs, men, and women and share some of our standout skates.. and of course, our thoughts on how the dance competition in particular played out. Did the judges get it right? Speaking of which, we give high praise to the judges in one discipline over using the system in the way it is supposed to be used— finally! Enjoy!
Tony and Thomas are back from St. Louis and ready to talk all things National Championships. Running on zero sleep, we highlight all four disciplines, the no-surprise Olympic announcements, some of the insights we heard from skaters, officials, and fans throughout the week, and some of our favorite moments and run-ins with former champions and skating personalities.Watch us on YouTube!
Watch on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/145468805(No YouTube this week, they don't want us showing elements!)Tony and Thomas complete recapping the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. As seems to be requested most heavily, we do a deeper dive into the dance event and compare the elements of the top teams against the all-but-forgotten about GOE scoring rubric. We share our opinions of the results between the top two and the heated battle for the bronze medal, and then briefly recap the women's competition. Enjoy!
Tony and Thomas are back with their first of two videos recapping the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. 30 years of this event, and it's the last time contenders from both Europeans and Four Continents nations will face off against each other before the Olympic Games. This first video focuses on the pairs and mens competitions, with a brief look at ice dance. Tomorrow, we will deep-dive the dance event and also review the women's competition. Enjoy!
Tony and Thomas are back on this “off week” in preparation for the Grand Prix Final. We have some updates on the response from our Finlandia judging video, including reactions around the Internet and through the ISU as well as a current competitor writing to us about all of it. We also opened up the forum this week to ask questions that you would like us to answer and discuss. Enjoy! Link to YouTube videos of edges: The Four Figure Skating TurnsThomas’ “Technical Panel” Youtube videos: @thetechnical panelOlympic qualifying document / SkatingScores charts:USFS Oly Selection CriteriaSkating Scores Women's ChartSkating Scores Men's ChartSkating Scores Pairs ChartSkating Scores Dance ChartISU Technical DocumentationThe Technical Requirements for 2025/2026Ice Dance Scoring Rules & RubricScale of Values
Tony and Thomas are back after the SOS ice dance judging rant yesterday with a full review of the sixth and final Grand Prix regular season stop, Finlandia Trophy. Were there more ice dance shenanigans in the free dance? What was the fallout of the scoring yesterday? As always, a review of all four disciplines plus mention of who we will see in two weeks at the Grand Prix Final. Hopefully by then, Tony's voice and his health will be back to normal. Enjoy!
You know something is up when we break our normal upload schedule to bring you a special episode on the ice dance technical panel calling that ramped up last week at Skate America and has continued this week at Finlandia Trophy. Shawn Rettstatt, head of the ice dance technical committee, is the technical controller in both events. Although not the be-all end-all of the scores, we discuss some of the element calls we saw in the rhythm dance today. And for the millionth time, we beg for the complete overhaul the discipline needs.See it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/2DZ3Kx3HTIk
Tony reports in from Lake Placid while Thomas breaks things down from home as they dissect Skate America from every angle, from NBC’s Chock/Bates-centric coverage and slow-twizzle discourse to the tech panel’s quad Lutz calls on Kevin Aymoz and Shoma Uno, Jason Brown’s Riverdance short, and the judging trends shaping the men’s field. They dig into standout dance performances from the Browns and Lajoie/Lagha, analyze the error-streaked Men's event, and have a heartfelt moment talking about fan favorite Wakaba Higuchi.
Tony and Thomas are moving right along with the Grand Prix series, this week with stop number four in Osaka, Japan for the NHK Trophy. A lengthy discussion about the dance event and the return of the Shibutanis keeps us over two hours! As always, we also highlight the pairs, mens, and women's competitions and share some of our favorite moments of the week. Enjoy, and please remember to subscribe and like!
Tony and Thomas are back with Skate Canada highlights and opinions. After last week's overall negative vibe to our review, we tried to keep all of the specific poor technical panel calls out of the conversation except for mentioning how even the ISU appointed commentator was getting fed up with it during the short programs! Included, as always, are reviews for all events: the pairs, women, men, and ice dance. Enjoy!
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