Pizza! Spaghetti! Rome! Carolina Kostner! It's Italian Nationals!
Not having any Russian competitions this past week was a little disorienting, but Italian Nationals offered a more peaceful, albeit less exciting, viewing experience. Here are my personal highlights.
#3: Gabriele Frangipani
I recall being impressed with Gabriele last season, and I managed to skip over Nebelhorn Trophy this year (at which he ended up in 2nd), so seeing him here was another reminder of how much he's improving. Mainly, I thought it was a reminder of how deep the Italian team is becoming. He had quite a solid short program, and even though there were technical misses in the long (although I think those can be excused because we gotta love a Peaky-Blinders inspired performance), I still thought his speed and posture and skating skills were better than the winner here.
#2: Lara Naki Gutmann- The Next Carolina?
Lara's performances in the Jr. Grand Prix circuit last year live so clearly in my mind because I was so much more impressed with her artistic quality than so many other skaters with higher technical content. That rang true here as well- the technical content was quite basic and there were technical mistakes in the long program, but I just think that her deportment and arm movement and expression make her stand out enormously from her competitors. I was so excited to see her win the Ladies' title, and I'm really hoping that her technical content advances in the next few years, because I think she has some big potential.
#1: Matteo!
Yay Matteo! He still ended up behind Daniel Grassl here, mainly because of the lack of quad jumps and a missed combo in the short, but his free program performance was such a great example of Matteo's potential. Watching him perform directly after Grassl emphasized how much more mature Matteo's speed and edges and posture are. Two VERY different viewing experiences, back to back...Plus, I actually liked (??) this Greatest Showman program? That's a new one. Overall, I think his consistency is coming back after switching coaches, and I'm hoping that Grassl's quads (no matter how low-quality they may be) will inspire Matteo to regain the technical content that was becoming so exciting internationally.
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