20 of the Best Skating Programs from the Fall of 2016

2. Adam Rippon (USA): Long Program

Last year, Adam Rippon dazzled audiences with his show program set to “O” by Coldplay. He wasn’t the first skater to use this music, but he made it his own. When his initial freeskate this year didn’t work out, he decided to adapt it into a new one. He combined it The Cinematic Orchestra’s “Arrival of the Birds” and enlisted the effort of So You Think You Can Dance winner Benji Schwimmer, who had choreographed the original show number.

Even before fans saw the long program, expectations were high. When he debuted it at Skate America, they were met and exceeded. He’s always been a good artist, and this program brings his best qualities there out. Perfectly embodying a bird, without his arm movements ever crossing the line into gratuitous, Rippon effortlessly creates a poetic vision of flight, of strain, almost of touching the sky. His ease with it is even more remarkable given how little time he had to train it before the debut. It was partly the emotional impact of this freeskate that helped him win two bronzes on the Grand Prix circuit and with them, his first ever trip to the Grand Prix Finale.

Reigning U.S. Champion, Rippon nonetheless is facing a challenge in January to even make the World team, with only two spots available, and others having more technical content than him. But fans now hope he makes it simply so this long can be performed in Helsinki.  If he does make it, it may be thanks to this work of art.