When Europeans are in Minsk, you can predict the podium with 99.9% accuracy. Disappointed, not surprised though. HUGE CONGRATS to Vanessa and Morgan - you're absolutely gorgeous!!! But at the same time my heart aches for Nicole & Matteo and I'm totally not ok with Javi's 3rd place aka I feel they've just got robbed...

here’s the thing about vanessa james and morgan cipres medaling at the world championships:

after spending almost a full month in korea for the olympics, they flew to france to skate in a gala for two days, then right away traveled back to florida where they had just under three weeks to prepare for the world championships, except that morgan got injured so it was more like one week to train, plus they were probably INSANELY jetlagged so you lose another couple of days there (think about it, four countries in the span of one month!!! korea--> france --> usa --> italy). they almost considered not going to the world championships but they decided to give it a try ANYWAY because vanessa and morgan are FIGHTERS. they arrived in milan smiling and with positive attitudes despite probably being exhausted and undertrained, and then they skated like fearless tenacious BEASTS during their free skate to hang onto that medal (shoutout to vanessa for the comeback after that brutal fall), and here’s the thing: i knew they had a shot at a medal, but i did not know that after such a long, exhausting season, they still had the strength and fight in them to create such a powerful moment.

not to mention, even before the olympics started they had an emotionally exhausting season (IMO getting shortchanged during the grandprix despite skating 100% clean in all their assignments and then getting cheated out of a medal at europeans). i saw how uncharacteristically emotional vanessa was at the olympics, i saw that she gave it her all. even though they weren’t one of the medal favorites at the olympics, they had a different set of pressures on them: the pressure to prove others wrong, the pressure of having to earn the judge’s scores and not being given the benefit of the doubt, the pressure to prove that their breakthrough last year wasn’t a fluke, that they are worthy of being contenders. 

in an interview morgan said of their worlds performance, “we fought like lions.”

i don’t love this team because they’re perfect. i love this team because in a sport where seniority and clout sometimes overshadows merit, they made their mark. they advocated for themselves when no one else really took them that seriously. they never quit. 

and now, after EIGHT YEARS OF SKATING TOGETHER, they are finally world medalists. no one can say they don’t deserve it. 

Interview with James/Cipres starts at 2:24.

Translation via Lived In Inch @ Golden Skate forums: