Your guide to this week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships
When (and where) to watch figure skating on TV and streaming
Welcome to Girl Culture, the newsletter where Caroline Siede examines pop culture, feminism, and more. You can learn about Girl Culture’s mission here and support here.
The actual Super Bowl may be next month, but my Super Bowl takes place this weekend: the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, where America crowns its top skaters, sets the stage for the World Figure Skating Championships in March, and—perhaps most importantly—starts to lay the path to next year’s Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.
Like a lot of Millennial women, my love for figure skating started back in the ’90s, when a burst of American female champs (including my beloved Michelle Kwan) captivated the nation and enchanted the hearts of little girls everywhere. Then I fell back in love with the sport in the 2010s, while following the careers of Canadian ice dance darlings Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (truly my Roman Empire) and Olympic champ Nathan Chen. I love the way figure skating combines the intensity of athletics with the artistry of dance. And since I’m known as the person in my friend group who alerts everyone when skating is on TV, I figured I’d expand that service to my Girl Culture readers as well.
In case you’re a newbie, figure skating consists of four disciplines: Women’s Skating, Men’s Skating, Pairs Skating, and Ice Dancing (which is based in ballroom dancing and doesn’t feature jumps or throws like the other disciplines). And each discipline competes across two events—a short program and a free skate/long program. That means there will be eight total events to watch at this week’s competition in Wichita, Kansas. And while potential Olympic hopefuls Isabeau Levito and Jason Brown are out for injuries/equipment issues, you can look forward to seeing pansexual queen/triple axel pro Amber Glenn, connoisseurs of campy ice dance choreography Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and “quad god” wunderkind Ilia Malinin, plus long-time competitors like Bradie Tennell, Alysa Liu, Starr Andrews, Camden Pulkinen, and Jimmy Ma. (Do yourself a favor and watch Ma’s now-iconic 2018 short program set to “Turn Down For What.”)
The full competition will be streamed live on Peacock and the TV schedule is below:
Thursday, January 23
7pm-9pm ET: Pairs Short Program (USA Network)
9pm-11pm ET: Women’s Short Program (USA Network)
*early rounds of competition start at 6pm ET on Peacock
Friday, January 24
6pm-8pm ET: Ice Dancing Short Program a.k.a. Rhythm Dance (USA Network)
8pm-11pm ET: Women’s Free Skate (NBC)
*early rounds of competition start at 5pm ET on Peacock
Saturday, January 25
2:30-4:30pm ET: Men’s Short + Ice Dancing Free Dance (NBC)
8pm-10pm ET: Pairs Free Skate (USA Network)
*early rounds of competition start at 11am ET on Peacock
Sunday, January 26
4pm-6pm: Men’s Free Skate (NBC)
*early rounds of competition start at 2:45pm ET on Peacock
Then the “Skating Spectacular” (a.k.a. the non-competition portion where skaters just get to do a fun performance) will stream on Peacock starting at 8pm ET on Sunday, while USA Network is holding it for TV broadcast until 12pm ET on February 2nd.
Happy viewing!
Other stuff I’ve worked on lately: I reviewed the Doctor Who Christmas special and restarted my St. Denis Medical coverage for Episodic Medium; contributed to The Boston Globe’s best TV of the year list; and took a deep dive into the wild, weird, wonderful films of Michelle Yeoh’s early Hong Kong action career for Women of Action.
Damn, I miss watching figure skating on TV almost as much as I miss practicing it on ice! Thanks for the reminder, even though I'm not in the US it makes me look forward to the World Championship.