Time Makes You Bolder

EO/Rollisi. Still a Swiftie and Kaling fan

[infectiouspiss]

a tiny heist went down to rescue Rise and now he's being taken everywhere by Reid Wiseman because he's extremely important (he was supposed to be left on the craft, he has instead been adopted)

[the-bar-sinister]

Never be afraid to take your favorite plushie everywhere. If it's cool enough for an astronaut, it's cool enough for you.

[kosmogrl]

[crokitheloki]

everyone say thank you ao3 volunteers you're the best ao3 volunteers ily ao3 volunteers

[raisedbylibrarians]

[dailybridgerton]

BRIDGERTON S01E08: "After the Rain" S04E07: "The Beyond"

[digitaldiscipline]

[thatonekimgirl]

Olympic Winter Games || Milano 2026 || Women's Figure Skating Podium

[cheryls-blossomed]

I cannot begin to stress how important Alysa Liu is to a sport like figure skating. This is a sport that is rife with abuse and that has silenced women and has forced them to do as they’re told in order to win medals. This is a sport where authoritative figures exercise an immense amount of control over athletes from their childhoods.

Alysa left the sport because of burn out. Because of what she went through. When she came back, she said that she’d skate to whatever music that she wanted. That she’d be in charge of her training schedule. That she’d be able to take a very active role in choreographing her programs and choosing her costumes. Her entire comeback has been about her taking authority over her career. She is in charge of her own career, as it should be. As it should always be.

And she is now the Olympic Champion. Her trajectory is proof that an athlete taking control of their training, of their joy, and of their competitive career is absolutely paramount to success in sport.

[foolhearteyes]

guys I'm shaking I need to write a fucking essay on Kazakhstani skating and Denis Ten and why this win is so so historically significant but I can't even find the words to start on my god MIKHAIL SHAIDOROV OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST IN MEN'S FIGURE SKATING

[foolhearteyes]

Okay. Okay.

First, I should say that Kazakhstan is not a country well-known for figure skating. Unless I'm missing someone, there have been less than a dozen Kazakhstani figure skaters to even qualify for the Olympics. Even hardcore figure skating fans can probably only name a couple skaters other than Shaidorov off the top of their heads. If you can name anyone, it's probably Elizabet Tursynbaeva, who became the first woman to land a quad in a senior international competition in 2019... and Denis Ten.

Now, who's Denis Ten?

Denis Ten was a Kazakhstani figure skater (of the Korean ethnic minority group of Kazakhstan) who started skating at an outdoor rink and trained in a shopping mall for much of his childhood. He is best known for being the Sochi 2014 bronze medalist, where he had a shocking comeback from his 9th place short program with a 3rd place free skate. It was the first time a Kazakhstani skater had EVER won an Olympic medal for figure skating, and because of that, he is widely credited for popularizing the sport in Kazakhstan.

And he had a very successful career outside of Sochi! (Although he was unfortunately injured for his next Olympic season and placed 27th at Pyeongchang.) He was on the Worlds podium twice, won Four Continents, and always had a good showing at Grand Prix events. You can look at his many accolades here. He battled injuries for many seasons, but he still had an incredible career.

As you might imagine, it’s hard to become a professional figure skater in a country with so few ice skating rinks that your best skaters practice in malls. Figure skating is a sport for the wealthy. It’s expensive to get started and it’s even more expensive to get professional training. And even if you have the money, if you live somewhere without good rinks and good coaches... well, that's it for a lot of skaters. People from countries with small skating federations are simply at a disadvantage due to a lack of resources. And that's not even touching the politics of judging and Grand Prix assignments and Worlds slots, etc etc.

Ten was lucky enough to be scouted by a Russian coach after winning a competition in Omsk, Russia in 2003 when he was 10 years old (I hope he flew because that’s a 20+ hour drive from his hometown of Almaty). He was invited to that coach’s training camp and later invited to join the club full-time. In 2013 he moved to California to train under a USAmerican coach. Training internationally is common for skaters from small federations, and personally I think it’s a bit of a tragedy. Like many skaters, Ten was in a position to represent his country on the international stage at the cost of being able to live there year-round.

But Kazakhstan was always in Denis Ten’s heart. After his historic 2014 Olympic bronze win, he organized an unprecedented ice show in his home country featuring 12 (TWELVE!) Olympic medalists from all over the world, selling out two different cities in a country with virtually no cultural history of figure skating. The money from the Astana show benefitted a child with cancer, while the money from the Almaty shows went to promoting figure skating in Kazakhstan. And he continued working to develop the popularity of winter sports in the country for years afterwards, serving as one of the major advocates for Almaty’s 2022 Olympic bid.

I wish we could say that he was still advocating for the sport today, but in July of 2018, Denis Ten was tragically murdered during an attempted carjacking. He was 25 years old. 

It is not an exaggeration to say that Denis Ten changed Kazakhstani skating forever. Part of his inspiration for bringing so many international skaters to Kazakhstan for his ice show was that he knew many skaters who were curious about the country, because it wasn’t one where they ever competed. Now the Denis Ten Memorial Cup has been held annually in Almaty since 2019, bringing skaters from around the world to Kazakhstan. 

And you would be hard-pressed to find any young Kazakhstani skater who doesn’t look up to Denis Ten, Mikhail Shaidorov included. Ten isn’t Mikhail Shaidorov’s only inspiration (like all of us, he’s a big Yuzuru fan). But he does list Ten as one of his major influences, and in 2024 he said, “Denis Ten told the world that Kazakhstan has figure skating. Now I can remind people of that." (Please excuse the machine translation, as I do not speak Russian.)

And when Shaidorov talks about how proud he is to be a Kazakhstani skater, he talks about how he got his start in the very same shopping mall rink where Denis Ten once trained. And while he frequently attends international training camps, he mainly lives and trains in his hometown of Almaty.

Shaidorov’s win today is a historic first in many ways. It is the first gold medal Kazakhstan has ever won for figure skating. It is their first Winter Olympics gold medal since Vladimir Smirnov won for cross-country skiing in 1994. But it is also the continuation of a Kazakhstani skating legacy begun by Denis Ten. 

And I like to think that Denis would be proud.

[beautifulstorms]

just adding that denis wasn't only an accomplished skater, he was also a beautiful one! gorgeous posture, effortless flow across the ice, and one of the best triple axels you'll ever see.

if you're keen to rewatch some of his best performances, there's the sochi free skate, but i also love his linked short and free programs to the artist, and his program to S.O.S. d'un terrien en détresse performed by dimash (which i still think of as his music after this many years, though he never skated it clean)

[persimmonlions]

i am thinking of how in 2018/19 many prominent north american skaters, coaches, and commentators closed ranks to cover up john coughlin’s actions after he died, and it only stopped when ashley wagner — who is much more decorated than that pos ever was — named herself publicly as a survivor of coughlin’s actions.

i am thinking of how in 2019/20 when morgan cipres was charged with soliciting a 13 yo at his rink, his then-coach was accused of helping cover that up. that coach received a six-month suspension and went straight back to coaching and is at the olympics right now. cipres’ ex-partner vanessa james pretended nothing wrong happened and she had a new partner for no reason whatsoever, and skate canada was perfectly happy to let her do this if james could get them an medal in beijing.

and now, six years later, the who’s who of ice dancing closed ranks around nikolaj sørensen even though skate canada suspended sørensen for six years. training mates still invite him to weddings. commentators still gloss over why fourner-baudry switched partners. meanwhile, the one person who used her public platform to call this out lost her job over it.

a suspension or probation does very little for athlete safety, when the message from the skating community is that they’ll protect abusers for as long as they can.

[anewbeginningagain]

Somewhere, Tessa Virtue is sitting and thinking to herself, "thank god I'm done with this shit".

[spacedoutsnail]

Canadian figure skater Maddie Schizas had to ask her college professor for an extension on an assignment due to getting the dates mixed up as well as being in they Olympics

And he responded! He said absolutely and told her to just focus on the competition and that they’re all rooting for her 🥹

He also posted his first and only photo on Instagram of him watching her in the Olympics with the caption “I’m so proud of you Maddie!”

[powerbottombrucespringsteen]

Conservatives constantly picking fights with the elmo twitter for saying things like “elmo wants everybody to feel safe and loved!” Is an endlessly funny bit. Bro that’s Elmo. He’s 3 years old and he loves to draw. You look insane.

[sleepydreameroncloud9]

Law and Order SVU: Season 25, Episode 13

[eggplantgifs]

Kaori Sakamoto (JPN): Time to Say Goodbye » 2026 Winter Olympics - Figure Skating Team Event

[dancingontheblades]

Sharing this because I thought you guys might have an interest in learning that FB/C got grilled after today's team event.

If you didn't yet know that kind of people FB/C are, you know now.

Anyway, believe survivors. Always.

source: dividemebyzero.bsky.social

[virtchandmoir]

sam.chouinard7: BTS MOULIN ROUGE PART 3 That lift always gave me chills 🫣 ENJOY

@tessavirtue17 @scottmoir14 @olympics

#choreography#dance#olympics#moulinrouge#bts

[chasingjava]

God. I feel so bad for Luke T and Yerin and all the Benophies out there. The livestream could not be going worse. More than an hour and a half of technical difficulties only to finally get to the awkward live presenters who have hot mics revealing that their teleprompters aren’t working, showing the behind the scenes featurette and trailer a million times bc they can’t queue things up correctly, and then random shots of random fans and exteriors with ancillary noise

Netflix is a multi-billion dollar company. Get your act together. At this point, they’re so late that I won’t be able to watch the premiere bc I have a stupid end of day meeting. Netflix, this is your fault. Cut all the filler and get on with the show.