Giving “everything they had,” Hektor Giotopolous Moore and Anastasiia Golubeva say they carried the support of Australian fans as they delivered a strong Short Program at the Milan Ice Arena.
The Australian pairs skaters started off well, executing a powerful double twist lift, followed by side-by-side triple toe-loops.
Article courtesy olympics.com.au
“The elements weren’t the biggest tricks in terms of technical level, but we wanted to have a clean skate and I think we made the right decision,” said Giotopolous Moore. “I’m happy with what we did, I’m very proud of both of us.”
Skating to the dramatic ‘Exogenesis Symphony’ by Muse, the pair weaved in a beautiful reverse lasso lift, (a challenging element that requires both skaters to face forwards during the movement), a backward death spiral, and a step sequence that ran the length of the rink.
“It felt pretty good out there, I felt focused,” said Golubeva. “Right before I skated, I heard my mum yell “you’ve got this” and I just had goosebumps. I felt my parents with me during the whole program.
For Giotopolous Moore, it was the first time his older siblings had ever seen him on the international stage.
“It was special to have them here and to have that support. I saw all the Australian flags in the crowd. It was great.”
The pair had some difficulty on their final move – a change foot combination spin – in which they lost synchronisation and unity, but regardless, they say there were far more positives than negatives to take away.
“Maybe we didn’t have our absolute best skate but we gave it our all and that’s all we can do,” said Giotopolous Moore. “When I think about how we were skating a month and a half ago, we looked like a completely different pair. We’ve come such a long way from where we were and I’m just so proud of us either way.”
Missing much of the competitive season in the lead-up to the Games, the team received a season’s best of 60.69.
It wasn’t enough to take them through to the Free Skate, but it has cemented their desire for more.
“We’re going to take all the lessons we learned and get back to training and just keep working on getting better and better,” said Giotopolous Moore. “Right now I’m happy. Right now I’m on cloud nine.”
The Australian pairs skaters started off well, executing a powerful double twist lift, followed by side-by-side triple toe-loops.
Article courtesy olympics.com.au
“The elements weren’t the biggest tricks in terms of technical level, but we wanted to have a clean skate and I think we made the right decision,” said Giotopolous Moore. “I’m happy with what we did, I’m very proud of both of us.”
Skating to the dramatic ‘Exogenesis Symphony’ by Muse, the pair weaved in a beautiful reverse lasso lift, (a challenging element that requires both skaters to face forwards during the movement), a backward death spiral, and a step sequence that ran the length of the rink.
“It felt pretty good out there, I felt focused,” said Golubeva. “Right before I skated, I heard my mum yell “you’ve got this” and I just had goosebumps. I felt my parents with me during the whole program.
For Giotopolous Moore, it was the first time his older siblings had ever seen him on the international stage.
“It was special to have them here and to have that support. I saw all the Australian flags in the crowd. It was great.”
The pair had some difficulty on their final move – a change foot combination spin – in which they lost synchronisation and unity, but regardless, they say there were far more positives than negatives to take away.
“Maybe we didn’t have our absolute best skate but we gave it our all and that’s all we can do,” said Giotopolous Moore. “When I think about how we were skating a month and a half ago, we looked like a completely different pair. We’ve come such a long way from where we were and I’m just so proud of us either way.”
Missing much of the competitive season in the lead-up to the Games, the team received a season’s best of 60.69.
It wasn’t enough to take them through to the Free Skate, but it has cemented their desire for more.
“We’re going to take all the lessons we learned and get back to training and just keep working on getting better and better,” said Giotopolous Moore. “Right now I’m happy. Right now I’m on cloud nine.”
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