Ice Dance: very nice performance by Belbin and Agosto. Technically, it looked good to me (I have very little idea of what makes an ice dance performance good - like which holds, and how far apart bodies can be and circle closure and so for). They really do a good job musically with the program.

Pairs: As long as I can remember, the U.S. pairs have always lagged (along with the entire rest of the world) the Russians. Today, they lag the Chinese and the Russians, in that order, and it doesn't look like that will change for the forseeable future. Too many falls and lots of little mistakes as well. Makes me even more annoyed with ABC that we haven't seen any other pairs competition for the whole season until now.

Ladies: The big battle between Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen. Kwan on top, with nerves of steel, Cohen fading under pressure. In spite of the roaring crown and the large number of 6.0's, I wasn't actually all the impressed with Kwan's program. Skate, jump, skate some more, jump. Oh, all done jumping? Finally turn on the juice and look like you're having a good time. For me, the highlight of the ladies was Jenny Kirk, who is not Michelle or Sasha technically, but has visibly improved in every area.

Mens: After last year's mens disaster, I wasn't expecting much. Goebel and Weiss the two front runners have failed to deliver all season. Goebel bombed his short and withdrew, leaving Weiss and a bunch of very unknown names. The amazing thing is that the men pulled it together and the competition was of very high quality. Although the competition was quad-less -- I didn't count Weiss's two footed quad, there were plenty of triple axels and triple-triple combinations. Matt Savoie stood up (mostly) and delivered jumps from unconventional entrances. Ryan Jahnke delivered solid program and moved up quite a number of places. I don't care much for Weiss' skating but he was cleaner than usual. This was my first time seeing Johnny Weir actually skate -- he crashed out of last year's Nationals. A clean program, effortless jumps, very good spins, decent footwork. What a relief. He still doesn't connect during the performance, but that could have been nerves. (Of course, it's not like Plushenko connects to the audience that well either. Alexei Yagudin, where are you?). But on the whole, the men were the highlight this year.