#bpotq

Kaori Sakamoto: Time To Say Goodbye

Rino Matsuike: Lux Aeterna

Yuma Kagiyama: Turandot

Junhwan Cha: Balada para un loco (<- Olympic WhiteLoco)

So here we are at the end of the road and all it took were uhmm 256 polls over 5 different brackets. Thank you to everyone who participated, whether you nominated programs, spread propaganda for your favourites, or even just silently voted, this whole thing would not have been possible without you. So thank you everyone!!

And now onto the medalists, please allow me a moment to gush about each of these programs. Third place and winner of the bronze medal: Yuma Kagiyama's Turandot. It can best be described as timeless. The opening spread eagle sets the tone: this will be a celebration of skating. And it really is, this program combines and celebrates every aspect of figure skating. In Prague it was the perfect combination of Yuma's technical abilities, his jumps, his spins, his skating skills, and also his artistry, his ability to feel the music and to project onto the entire audience. Yumandot is less a of a free skate and more of a carefully crafted piece of art.

The final very fittingly for how the quad went was Kaori against Kaori which means that second place and winner of the silver medal is: Kaori Sakamoto's Janet Jackson Medley. And Janet Jackson herself approves of this program so really what more is there to say? Imagine this, you unexpectedly medal at the Olympic and then go on to become World Champion. Now a whole new Olympic cycle lies ahead and you are the leading woman, it falls to you to take up the mantel, a whole fraction of the skating world says that without the Russians the women's discipline will suffer and won't be worth watching, what do you do? Well, if your name is Kaori Sakamoto you get a haircut and go into a completely new direction. You show everyone just how great of a skater you are by showing that you can skate to anything. You show the world that it is not a coincidence that you are on top. You do a short program that is powerful and shows you and your skating off in a new way. You skate with incredible freedom that allows you to show what a champion looks like, you show that you are a Woman and what a Women's champion looks like. Because more than just proving yourself to be worthy of the title of leading woman you also show the world that women's skating is not going anywhere. You show the world just how dynamic and cool and stylish women's skating can be. You save women's skating. Kaori Sakamoto, the skater you are!!

And finally, first place and the official (declared by tumblr) Best Program of the Milano Cortina Quad is: Kaori Sakamoto's All That Jazz which already deservedly won the women's bracket and is now the Champion again, I can't think of a more deserving program and skater. I already talked more about the way this program challenged Kaori to become a better skater and how that aspect of it influences my view and love for this program during the semifinals so now I want to focus more on the actual program. From the first moment Kaori says 'look at me and don't you dare look away' and it works, you just can't look away. This step sequence is one of those that doesn't feel like a step sequence in the best way possible. It is not a checking all my boxes, I need to do this and that turn, I need to include my one foot cluster, I need to include body movement, I need to get a level for kind step sequence. Instead it is a the music is playing and  I am skating to it while also (almost incidentally) meeting all the requirements kind of step sequence which is not an easy feat to achieve in IJS. Another thing I love composition wise is how two of the last three elements are jumping passes, the music is fast and intense, it doesn't allow you to rest and the fact that the jump passes are really spread around the entire length of the program is the only correct choice, it adds to the energy. All That Jazz is joyous to watch and so addictive it's difficult to watch only once. It flies by, it doesn't feel like four minutes at all. And it is the undeniable Best Program of the Quad. Queen Kaori, Congratulations and Happy Birthday!!!

And here is the full bracket:

The official (declared by tumblr) best Women's Program of the Milano Cortina Quad is Kaori Sakamoto's All That Jazz Free Skate. Congratulations!

Second place goes to Mai Mihara's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence Short Program and third place is Kaori Sakamoto's Time To Say Goodbye Short Program

And here is the full bracket:

Kaori Sakamoto: All That Jazz

Kaori Sakamoto: Janet Jackson

The official (declared by tumblr) best Men's program of the Milano Cortina Quad is Junhwan Cha's Rain, In Your Black Eyes Short Program. Congratulations!

Second place goes to Yuma Kagiyama's Turandot Free Skate and third place is Junhwan Cha's James Bond Free Skate

And here is the full bracket:

Pairs

Conti/Macii: Carmen

Conti/Macii: Cinema Paradiso

Conti/Macii: Wild Bull

Hase/Volodin: Four Seasons

Hase/Volodin: Memoryhouse

Hase/Volodin: Stay

Hase/Volodin: You Were Mine

Metelkina/Berulava: Bolero

Miura/Kihara: Atlas II

Miura/Kihara: Dare you to move

Miura/Kihara: Gladiator

Miura/Kihara: Paint it black

Nagaoka/Moriguchi: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Nagaoka/Moriguchi: Tree of Life

Stellato/Deschamps: Interview with the Vampire

Vouillamoz/Bouvart: Matrix

Ice Dance

Brown/Brown: Godfather

Carreira/Ponomarenko: Carmen

Carreira/Ponomarenko: Perfume

Gilles/Poirier: Vincent

Gilles/Poirier: Wuthering Heights

Green/Parsons: Rhapsody in Blue

Guignard/Fabbri: My love will never die

Lim/Quan: Danse Macabre

Lim/Quan: Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Lopareva/Brissaud: BFRND

Lopareva/Brissaud: Mylene Farmer

Lopareva/Brissaud: Rasputin

Orihara/Pirinen: Chicago

Orihara/Pirinen: Mermaids

Smart/Dieck: Dune 1.0

Turkkila/Versluis: Bewitched

Women

Yuna Aoki: Adios Nonino

Yuna Aoki: La La Land

Mone Chiba: Last Dance

Mone Chiba: Romeo + Juliet

Lara Naki Gutmann: Jaws

Wakaba Higuchi: Runnung Up That Hill

Chaeyeon Kim: Tron

Yelim Kim: Ladies in Lavender

Yelim Kim: Mercy

Alysa Liu: Promise

Rino Matsuike: Lux Aeterna

Mai Mihara: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

Kaori Sakamoto: All That Jazz

Kaori Sakamoto: Janet Jackson

Kaori Sakamoto: Time To Say Goodbye

Hana Yoshida: Shakuhachi

Men

Donovan Carillo: Hip Hip Shin Shin

Junhwan Cha: Balada para un loco

Junhwan Cha: James Bond

Junhwan Cha: Rain, In Your Black Eyes

Yuma Kagiyama: Rain, In Your Black Eyes

Yuma Kagiyama: Romanza

Yuma Kagiyama: Turandot

Andreas Nordebäck: Personal Jesus

Aleksandr Selevko: Prince

Minkyu Seo: Moonlight Sonata

Adam Siao Him Fa: Rain, In Your Black Eyes

Adam Siao Him Fa: S.O.S. d'un terrien en détresse

Kazuki Tomono: Die Fledermaus

Kazuki Tomono: That's Crazy

Shoma Uno: Mea Tormenta