I've read comments that viewers enjoyed this skating drama more than Skate Into Love and My Unicorn Girl which says a lot about the standard of ice skating romances. Not to say To Fly With You wasn't good - it was! It featured a heartwarming story of perseverance, sportsmanship, hard work + diligence, forgiveness, and falling in love. But it still ultimately resorts to classic Cdrama cliches that lengthened the storyline for nonsensical reasons and tested my patience. The overall feeling from this drama is a positive one though, mainly because I thought the production value of the skating scenes was impressive, and it got me emotional with the main characters' dreams (I must say, gotta love a training montage, and To Fly With You had one every couple of episodes lmao).

PROS
❀ Do-gooder short track speed skater x goofy/lovable figure skater | I love how the main leads are both ice skaters, but interested in different sports. There are great scenes of them helping each other out in their respective fields, which I just *clenches fist* love. The synergy!!! Their romance was one of those "first love + innocent" ones where they quickly catch feelings but are ignorant of the others' feelings. They start off as a bickering pair, intrigued by each other, follow up as friends that help each other in the rink + random contractual relationship, and end up as a couple by ep 22. Did it take too long to reach there? Lowkey yes because of dense feelings going on. I would have accepted it if they were too busy with training/resolving conflicts in their respective sports/anything sports-related, but the fact that we had to sit through a disgusting, gnatty 2FL who the FL was too nice to... bruh, we deserved better.
The good news is that once the couple is together, they're good as gold. They continue supporting each other in their endeavors and even trust each other when family drama happens. The FL's unwavering confidence in the ML really bolstered him in his pursuit from pair figure skating to single figure skating, while the ML's enthusiasm for the FL in chasing her dream pushed her forward. She's the type to think well of people, no matter what, and he's a golden retriever who's spunky and energetic. Both actors are new to me (although I've seen the ML in some clips of Forever Love, and it seems he has a similar playful character), but they both portray a youth/college role really well and had great emotion in their scenes.
❀ Sismances and team bonding | While I was annoyed at some characters at first for their cattiness, they quickly grew on me as the shows explored their backgrounds. The whole "she's mean but there are underlying reasons why she acts this way and once you dig those out and psychoanalyze her she'll turn a new leaf" trope is just *chef's kiss* muah. Especially for sports dramas. I love the eventual progression of the speed skater team and seeing the FL rise from a self-taught skater to a professional who beat previous winners. Her diligence and passion for skating was well-portrayed by the actress! I also enjoyed the friendship she has with another skater, Zhu Lele (lmao which is my Chinese nickname). Lele was annoying at times, but their sismance was definitely A+.
❀ THE MOMS!!!!!!!! | Me during the mom scenes: "Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry."
One of the reasons why this show stuck with me is the story behind the main couple's moms. The blurb already hints at some undelying animosity, but I love how the moms were able to reconcile through their children and communication. Both actresses were SPECTACULAR. Great angry and crying scenes, great expressions of regret, great acting to gain our sympathy. I love how both moms' legacies on the ice were carried on by their children (who end up dating!! Sheeesh). They were both passionate and headstrong women that had moving scenes. Coach Zhuang Ye (the ML's mom and FL's coach) and the FL's relationship was also well-done and nicely developed. The moms were the heart of this show.
❀ Impressive visuals/production on the ice | I don't have many expectations for Cdrama effects, but To Fly With You had pretty good visuals. I never skipped the scenes on the ice and although the music was rather repetitive, they utilized it in a way that dramaticized the skating scenes. It really made you pumped!! I couldn't even tell if they used stunt actors for some of the scenes (I mean, they must have, right?), which added a realistic layer to everything. Also,,, the ML did an AMAZING job with his figure skating scenes. Honestly his last match made me so emotional and got me rewatching Yuri On Ice scenes (a figure skating anime that's phenomenal).

CONS
✕ I started fast-forwarding/skipping the secondary couple scenes | Don't get me wrong, the second couple consists of the best friends/roommates of the main couple and they cute af, but...,,, it's the typical secondary couple storyline. For some reason it's as much drama as the first couple, paired with misunderstandings, even a break up (whatt??), the FL's friend dating some other dude beforehand, among other things. Did I care about their theater club? Absolutely not. (I feel like they could have incorporated it better with the main leads and developed bonds through their scenes but it remained pretty separate from the main storyline.) Did I care about their romance? Not really either... the girl (Lele) was a mess half the time with indecisiveness and in general there was a lot of pushing/pulling that got me impatient. I think these characters are great as the silly foil/bffs of the main leads, but their romantic storyline was a no from me.
✕ THE MOST unnecessary sibling combo to ever exist | AKA the Xiao siblings. On the left, we have an immature male coach that, although he's an adult, uses young women's dreams of skating as a way to resolve his past trauma in seeing his best friend's death (btw, did this ever get resolved?? If it did, I must have fast forwarded past it. If it didn't... even more reason to dislike him). On the right, we see an immature younger sister who creates misunderstandings with every word out of her mouth because she's obsessed with the ML and can't take "no" for an answer. The left is a cockroach because despite all the shit he pulled, he survives it all and is still loved in the end by the team. The right is a gnat, because she be appearing EVERYWHERE and getting between the main couple for literally no reason. Their faces made me so annoyed I started watching their scenes at 2x speed, and even fast forwarded. For a sports drama, I didn't think there was TIME to put an annoying 2FL with evil intentions but I guess this is what happens with 33 eps. Tbh even skipping their scenes, ya ain't missing much from the show.
✕ Misunderstanding level: 4/10 | Definitely miscommunication between the second couple, and a slight misunderstanding between the primary couple when the ML confesses to the FL. Don't know why this misunderstanding was dragged on for a literal episode (he confesses at the end of ep 20 if I recall correctly, misunderstanding is the whole theme of ep 21, and they finally get together in ep 22). It was a juvenile situation (ML confessing to the wrong girl) and added screen time to the gnat, which was wholly unnecessary. I came in for a skating drama about teammates and chasing dreams - why did I have to sit through ~45 min of me yelling at the gnat for not telling the truth?!? ;__; alas.

OVERALL
I'm not sure if To Fly With You brings anything new to the drama game, but as a drama dedicated to the Beijing 2022 Olympics, it definitely makes a viewer emotional and pumped for the matches. The sismance, team camaraderie, and romance(s) make for a relationship-driven show that captures watchers' hearts as we follow the characters' dreams on the rink.

(Note: My rewatch value is set to 5.0 always as a default as I'm not the type to rewatch dramas EVER. Thus, I do not take it into account when calculating overall score.)