State of the Skate

The Way to San Jose, Part 3: The Journey Continues... (For Some)

2012-01-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

So much to say about the past 4 days of skating in San Jose! And over in Sheffield last week! And up in Moncton before that! Whew!

What do YOU want to talk about? The return of JereMEEE? The determination and triumph of Ashley? The surprise of Rockne and Mary Beth? The battle for the spot eventually earned by Madison and Zachary?

And then there was the coverage to consider. What did we think of NBC this time around? How about IceNetwork? How about Johnny Weir and IceNetwork?

Have you caught up with Europeans yet? (um, no, other than to know who won…)

How about Canadians? (uh, see previous answer…)

And to think, 4CCs are already less than two weeks out!

I’ll post some observations over the next few days… but please post some of your own in the meantime… a question so nice I’ll ask it twice: what do YOU want to talk about?

(Because otherwise you'll just have to hear about what I want to say... blah, blah, blah)

The Way to San Jose, Part 2: The Predictions

2012-01-25T21:23:00.000-08:00

I had my days wrong; senior events at U.S. Nationals don’t get started until Thursday. So I took a little more time putting these together… we’ll see if it helps:

PAIRS PREDICTIONS:

Gold: Denney/Coughlin
Silver: Evora/Ladwig
Bronze: Marley/Brubaker
Dark Horses: Castelli/Shnapir, Vise/Baldwin, Cain/Reagan

Pairs shapes up internationally as our weakest event… will things change this year at Worlds? Methinks the ones to answer that question are similar to the ones who tried it last year. While it’d be nice to see Evora/Ladwig on top for once—if only as a testament to their enduring partnership-- I’m afraid I have more confidence in D/C’s side by side jumps. I haven’t seen Marley/Brubaker skate in a while, but I miss seeing Brubaker on the podium so I’m hoping he and young Ms. Marley now have the experience to get there.

LADIES PREDICTIONS:
Gold: Alissa Czisny
Silver: Mirai Nagasu
Bronze: Ashley Wagner
Dark Horses: Rachael Flatt, Agnes Zawadzki, Samantha Cesario

Czisny has been at this what seems like forever (yes, 2002 now counts as a very long time ago in respects like this), and to win this title back to back would be to further banish her “emotionally fragile” label. Nagasu tends to shine at Nationals, even when she can’t anywhere else… it’s not out of the question to think she could re-claim the title she first won in 2008. But I wasn’t a big fan of her Spartacus free skate when I saw it in the fall, mostly because she lacked a spark with it. Has she re-tooled it… or herself? We shall see. Speaking of which, Flatt sure had her work cut out for her when she completed her turn on the GP circuit with some of the lowest scores she’s ever had at this level of competition. Has she adjusted the Skating/Stanford balance by now? Maybe, but for me, Firebird just doesn’t work very well on Flatt. If her bummer season continues, I’m pulling for Wagner to get back to the podium. By the way, if I’m right about Cesario giving everyone a surprise appearance in the final flight, look for some dueling Swans… both she and Wagner are free skating to selections from Black Swan (and I think have similar costumes to boot).

DANCE PREDICTIONS:
Gold: Davis/White
Silver: Shibutani/Shibutani
Bronze: Hubbell/Donohue
Dark Horses: Chock/Bates, Kriengkrairut/Giulietti-Schmitt, Samuelson/Gilles

Obviously D/W are untouchable as far as the U.S. compeition is concerned, so let’s move on to the battle for silver and bronze (both of which get to move on to Worlds). I prefer both Hubbell/Donohue’s and Chock/Bates’ free dances to that of the Shib Sibs this year, and would enjoy seeing either of them on the podium. But the Shibs appear to have killer technique that helps them overcome any emotional disconnect they may encounter—a disconnect prone to brother/sister teams (the Kerrs being one notable exception). Plus they’ve still got that World bronze medal in their back pocket…

MEN PREDICTIONS
Gold: Jeremy Abbott
Silver: Richard Dornbush
Bronze: Adam Rippon
Dark Horses: Ross Miner, Max Aaron, Armin Mahbanoozadeh

A tough category? Yes, but on the other hand, I’m going to try and call the whole top 10 here: Abbott, Dornbush, Rippon, Miner, Aaron, Mahbanoozadeh, (Joshua) Farris, (Jason) Brown, (Keegan) Messing, (Douglas) Razzano.

Abbott will be disappointed with anything less than his third U.S. title; as well he should be, he’s the best all-around skater of the field with two of the best programs of the season. Dornbush should do well enough to prove his silver medal last year was no fluke; Rippon, like his buddy Ashley Wagner, desperately needs to prove he can handle this Nationals pressure and get a medal by hook or crook. Also making a splash this year should be Aaron (2011 Junior champ), Farris (shaking off the horrors of his previous senior Nats), and—especially if he can land as triple axel by now—Brown.

The pairs skate their SP at 7PM Eastern time Thursday; the ladies; at 10:30. ARE YOU READY?? ARE THEY?? Let’s enjoy this.

The Way to San Jose 2012 Nationals, part 1: The Competitors

2012-01-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

So here’s some information to get you started on your U.S. Nationals-watching:

This is IceNetwork.com’s streaming schedule for all events.
(Please note that I typically don’t get the opportunity to watch/cover the Novice-level skating, and will probably track just the medalists at the Junior level)

This is a similar ”guide” from U S Figure Skating; this one includes NBC coverage and covers the various commentators that will be working the event. (Unfortunately I don’t see anything on here about Universal Sports coverage; I lost that coverage myself on January 1st so I’m not sure what’s up with that.)

Since the Senior Pairs and Ladies get started on Wednesday, I’m running them down first… will get my predictions (yeah, I’ll try doing it again) up before things get started on Wednesday.

P.S. if you know any of these competitors, please give a shout-out in the comments! Good luck to all!!

SENIOR PAIRS

Who’s new?
Cassie Andrews/Timothy LeDuc-- Won the bronze in Juniors last year
Kloe Chanel Bautista/Tyler Harris-- Finished 10th in Juniors last year
Ashley Cain/Joshua Reagan-- Won Juniors last year; made their Senior GP debut this past fall at Cup of Russia, finishing 6th.
Rita Fehr/Peter Biver-- Other than the fact that they’re from Wisconsin, I couldn’t find much about them or their compeitive history.
Andrea Poapst/Christopher Knierim-- Finished 2nd in Juniors last year

Who’s been here before?
Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir – 5th last year
Caydee Denney/John Coughlin – 3rd & 1st last year, respectively
Gretchen Donlan/Andrew Speroff – 8th last year
Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig—2nd last year
Mary Beth Marley/Rockne Brubaker—4th last year
Tiffany Vise/Don Baldwin—6th last year
Felicia Zhang/Nathan Bartholomay-- Felicia came to Seniors last year w/another partner (Taylor Toth), but they had to withdraw due to injury.

SENIOR LADIES

Who’s new?
Sophia Adams-- from the Pacific Coast Sectionals (did not compete at Junior Nationals last year
Kiri Baga—4th at Juniors in 2010; withdrew from Seniors last year due to injury
McKinzie Daniels – 4th in Junors last year
Haley Dunne—8th in Juniors last year
Leah Keiser—2010 Novice champion; injury kept her out of Nationals last year
Nina Jiang—9th in Juniors last year
Angela Wang—7th in Juniors in 2010; was not at Nationals last year

Who’s been here before?
Morgan Bell—17th at Senior Nationals last year
Samantha Cesario—14th at her Senior Nationals debut in 2010, but was injured last year.
Alissa Czisny—Reigning U.S. Champ; has competed in Seniors since 2002!

Rachael Flatt—2010 U.S. Champ; has competed in Seniors since 2007.

Joelle Forte—3rd Senior Nats; finished 9th last year.

Christina Gao—3rd Senior Nats; finished 5th last year.

Vanessa Lam—2nd Senior Nats; finished 7th last year. Also made it to the Junior GP Finals this past fall, finishing 5th.

Mirai Nagasu—5th Senior Nats; won in 2008; finished 3rd last year.

Yasmin Siraj—2nd Seinor Nats; finished 8th in her debut last year.

Ashley Wagner—5th Senior Nats; finished 6th last year (best finish to date is 3rd)

Agnes Zawadzki—finished 4th last year in her Seniors debut.

Caroline Zhang—5th Senior Nats; finished 12th last year (best finish to date is 3rd)

What about…
Danielle Kahle—didn’t get out of Sectionals
Alexe Gilles—didn’t get out of Sectionals
Melissa Bulanhagui—now competes for Phillipines
Kristine Musademba, Kristiene Gong—not sure.

Courtney Hicks (last year’s Junior champion)—injured during the JGP this fall and is now out for the season

SENIOR ICE DANCE

Who’s New?
Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus-- 3rd in Juniors last year
Carina Glastris/Kevin Allison—11th in Juniors last year
Charlotte Lichtman/Dean Copely—Won Juniors last year; made their senior GP debut at Cup of China this year, coming in 7th.
Anastasia Olson/Jordan Cowan—4th in Juniors last year
Brittany Schmucker/Adam Munday (I have no info on them… very very new?)

Who’s been here before?
Isabella Cannuscio/Ian Lorello-- 6th in last year’s Senior Nats
Ginna Hoptman/Pavel Filchenkov-- 10th in last year’s Seniors)
Meredith Zuber/Kyle Herring-- 9th at last year’s Seniors
Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue-- She was 4th last year with her brother/former partner; he was 11th w/former partner)
Shannon Wingle/Timothy McKernan-- 7th at last year’s Senior Nats)
Emily Samuelson/Todd Gilles—new partnership, but neither competed at Nats last year.
Madison Chock/Evan Bates --She was 3rd last yr w/ Greg Zuerlein; he was out w/injury)
Meryl Davis/Charlie White—1st last year
Lynn Kriengkrairut/Logan Giulietti-Schmitt—5th at last year’s Senior Nats.
Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani—2nd at last year’s Senior Nats.

SENIOR MEN

Who’s new?
Max Aaron –Won Juniors last year
Alexander Aiken—3rd in Juniors last year
William Brewster—no info
Alexander Zahradnicek—2nd in Juniors last year

Who’s been here before?
Jeremy Abbott—6th appearance in Seniors; 2-time Champion who finished 4th last year
Jason Brown—2nd appearance in Seniors; finished 9th last year; also won the JGP this past Fall
Wesley Campbell-- 4th appearance in Seniors; was 14th last year
Stephen Carriere—5th appearance in Seniors; injured last year… best finish to date: 3rd
Jonathan Cassar—4th appearance in Seniors; finished 11th last year
Scott Dyer—2nd appearance in Seniors I think… finished 13th last year
Richard Dornbush—2nd appearance in Seniors; finished 2nd last year and was 9th at Worlds
Joshua Farris-- 2nd appearance in Seniors; 21st last year (you might remember he is the one who actually competed his FS last year with an ankle fracture!)
Grant Hochstein—3rd appearance in Seniors; 12th last year
Alexander Johnson—3rd appearance in Seniors; 16th last year
Armin Mahbanoozadeh—3rd appearance in Seniors; 6th lsat year
Keegan Messing—3rd appearance in Seniors; 8th last year

Ross Miner-- 2nd appearance in Seniors (I'm not counting 2010, when he had to withdraw); 3rd last year

Brandon Mroz-- 4th appearance in Seniors; best finish was 2nd in 2009

Douglas Razzano—5th appearance in Seniors; 10th last year

Adam Rippon-- 4th appearance in Seniors; finished 5th the past 2 years

What about…
Sean Rabbitt—didn’t get out of Sectionals
Parker Pennington—retired I’m assuming
Jason Wong and Christopher Caluza—no idea

Predictions coming Wednesday!!

Canadian, Euros, U.S. Nationals... Let the Winter Gold Rush Begin!

2012-01-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

The second half of the season is upon us!

Canadian Nationals have already begun (concluding this weekend)… U.S. Nationals begin next week… and ditto for Europeans.

Up north, it looks to be a pair of coronation/re-coronations paired with a couple more suspenseful competitions. For the men, of course, it’s Patrick Chan’s world… with a battle for silver (and the 2nd world team spot) that should prove the most interesting. Last year’s runner-up to Patrick Chan, Shawn Sawyer, has since retired; so too has Joey Russell, who took Sawyer’s place at Words. That leaves Kevin Reynolds, Elladj Balde, and the (finally!) injury-free Jeremy Ten among the contenders. Question for Canadian readers: should we include 13 year-old phenom Nam Nguyen (last year’s Junior Champ by a wide margin) among those who will make a run for the senior podium?

For dance, Virtue/Moir are back to reclaim their 4th National title after missing last year’s event. Crone/Poirier, who took the title in their absence, are no longer together… meaning the path is pretty clear for Weaver/Poje to repeat as silver medalists. Like the U.S., Canada gets three dance spots for Worlds—so battling for bronze should be Paul/Islam, Asher/Hill, and (possibly?) Paul Poirier with his new partner Piper Gilles. (Feel free to let me know if any of the athletes I name are not attending Nationals for some reason… I had the starting orders up earlier in the day, but they were proving difficult to load so I’m winging it at the moment!)

The biggest interest in the ladies event, I presume, is whether or not Cynthia Phaneuf’s recent coaching switch (to Brian Orser) will result in a notably improved skater from earlier in the season. Even if she’s still having trouble, is there really anyone strong enough to upset her from the top spot? Amelie Lacoste is the only one that comes to mind (is Myriane Sampson still competing?)

And over in pairs, the same three teams from last year could make the podium this year… but I wouldn’t place bets on the order for Moore-Towers/Moscovitch, Duhamel/Radford, and Lawrence/Swiegers. Duhamel/Radford took silver last year, but this season they were the Canadian pairs representative at the GP Final. Could they get the win at Nationals? We’ll know soon enough…

Over at Euros, the biggest news I’ve heard thus far (that isn’t Plushy-related) is that Russia’s Kavaguti/Smirnov, who took the silver here last year, will not be able to compete, due to the fact that Smirnov is still recovering from an emergency appendectomy he underwent earlier in the month. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov are taking their place.

I’ll start honing in on the U.S. Nationals when I post again later this week!

Time to Talk War Horse(s)... and No, I'm Not Talking About the Movie

2012-01-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

While we breathe through this little calm before the storm of events to come in the next month or so (Canadian Nationals… Euros… U.S. Nationals… 4CCs), I thought I’d take the lead provided by a certain Spielberg film that’s in theaters right now (and probably to score some Oscar nods, as I hear it) and talk a little about something that’s near and dear to the heart of any skating fan… the WAR HORSE. Also known as “music used for figure skating programs over and over and over again.”

Quick, can you think of 10 “war horses?”
Here’s the list I came up with, pretty much off the top of my head (along with a couple examples of recent uses):

Carmen
Almost too easy, but hey, it’s what came to mind first. Currently being used by, among (surely) others… Brandon Mroz.

West Side Story
Ironically, can’t think of anyone prominent that’s using it this year. But I know a U.S. ice dance team skated it for their FD last season, and of course Akiko Suzuki used it with impressive results back in the 2009-10 season.

Concierto de Aranjuez
I never, never remember how to spell this properly, let alone pronounce it. But this majestic, guitar-fueled composition certainly appears to be in vogue over the past few years—especially in Canada, where Joannie Rochette used it in the 2008-9 season… and both Patrick Chan and the pair of Duhamel/Radford are using it currently.

Phantom of the Opera
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music in general is certainly no stranger to figure skating, but there seems a certain soft spot for this 1986 Broadway smash hit. Elene Gedevanishvili has used it for her FS the past two years; Patrick Chan worked it for two years as well (2009-11). And of course Davis/White had pretty fine results with it during their 2009-10 Olympic season.

Romeo & Juliet (any version)
My gut reaction to naming this was which composition? The Tchaikovsky version, the Prokofiev, the Rota (from the 1968 film), or the 1995 “modern-day” film soundtrack? Almost all of them get equal use (though the ’95 ST is winning increasing favor); Adam Rippon’s SP from last season was an example of employing the Tchaikovsky version, while Yuzuru Hanyu’s current FS is among those using the modern version. But one thing’s for sure: if a piece of literature has been interpreted musically in so many well-known ways… and ALL those ways are embraced by figure skating… it’s gotta be a war horse.

The Mission
It’s a soundtrack from a 1986 film, and like Phantom, it’s been popular on the ice ever since… though when Matt Savoie went to the 2006 Olympics with it, funny how some of the very cuts he used keep turning up in other programs every single year. Last year it became perhaps best known as Miki Ando’s second SP (the one she debuted at the GP Final), and you might hear it again at U.S.Nationals as perennial competitor Wesley Campbell is using it for his FS (complete with a Savoie-esque tunic top, I couldn’t help but notice when I watched Campbell at Sectionals).

"Sing Sing Sing"
The ultimate upbeat, big-band ditty that’s been rocked annually for years, usually in short programs. Four that spring to mind: Jeffrey Buttle (2005-6 season), Rachael Flatt (2009-10), Zhang/Zhang (also 2009-10, though it wasn’t working for them and they changed it by Olympics time), and, currently, Jeremy Abbott.

Scheherazade
Also a tough one to spell, although I think I’m getting better at nailing it on the first try! John Curry did a definitive interpretation of this in his pro years, but Evan Lysacek’s use of it in Vancouver 2010 is probably remembered best for the younger fans. Though very different cuts have been chosen, Mao Asada is currently using it in her SP.

Spartacus
Whether it’s the soaring melodic part that Domnina/Shabalin used to their advantage in the 2008-9 season, or the more frenetic part that Ashley Wagner skated so effectively that same year, Spartacus seems to have that something-for-everyone appeal. It’s currently being used by Mirai Nagasu for her free skate.

Turnadot/"Nessum Dorma"
Turnadot is the opera; “Nessum Dorma” is the popular aria from said opera. And one or both of these turn up year after year in the rink. Evora/Ladwig, the U.S. pair, used ND all last season… and coincidental or not, Denney/Coughlin have been using a Jeff Beck version of the same thing all THIS season.

So… which war horses—be they on this list or otherwise— still make you genuinely smile each time you see a skater using them? And which ones are you dying to be put out to pasture? Please leave a comment!

Johnny, Plushy, and More of the Biggest Skating "Gets" So Far This New Year

2012-01-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

So… what did YOU get over the holiday season this time around? New IPad? Fruit basket? One of those Forever Lazy getups they sell on the Universal Sports Network? Well, whatever it was, it can’t possibly compare to “gets” such as the following:

Plushy gets the go-ahead to compete at Euros…
Russia went on record with some gobbeldy-gook about the “point minimum” rule only being in place to weed out weak athletes, and clearly, such was not the case with Plushenko (who just won Russian Nationals, you might have heard). What happened off the record to make it happen, perhaps we’ll never know.

And speaking of the European Championships… the ISU just got its own video channel. And they’ll be covering Euros on it, which you can see for something like $18.50 U.S. dollars. Except that oh, wait, apparently the channel doesn’t work for U.S. viewers. And viewers in several other countries, if the Facebook posts I read were accurate. If you find out YOU can get this channel where you happen to live, will you post a comment and let us know? At the very least, it’ll be interesting to see if those of us in the blackout zones will still be able to see YouTube-delayed coverage.

Scott Moir gets vindicated…sort of
Have you heard about this little scoring/Swiss Timing mistake that has apparently been affecting certain ice dance scores all season? The good news for Scott Moir (who was kind of livid about the GPF results, as you’ll recall): he was right—he and Tessa Virtue DID win the free dance over Davis/White. The bad news: the difference wasn’t enough to change the overall results. Oh well.

Kim Yu-Na gets another victory… sort of
She’s receiving an out-of-court settlement from her former management firm (prior to her forming her own) for money apparently still owed to her in endorsement fees and the like.

Johnny Weir gets married…
Well as you see from this link, his New Year’s Eve nuptials with Victor Voronov made headlines at USA Today (it made the Yahoo! Ticker too), so what’s the say that hasn’t already been said? Except… um… does anyone know where they’re registered? Something tells me Weir’s not the Target Club Wedd kind of guy.

And finally: the skating world gets…Corey Feldman??
Well if you’re in the U.K., it does anyway. This link shares that the 40 year-old child star of the 80s is lacing up for British TV hit Dancing on Ice-- the much, much more successful cousin to ill-fated U.S. efforts like Skating with the Stars. Apparently he’s doing it for the danger appeal. Good plan, dude. We’ll look for the outtakes if your inevitable bloodletting on You Tube. (Hopefully we won’t have to look for these in lieu of Euros coverage.)

A Wrap-Up of International Nationals to Close Out 2011...

2011-12-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

Updates, as promised, on two recently completed Nationals…

JAPAN
In what may have felt a little like an emotional repeat of Joannie Rochette’s performances at the Vancouver Olympics, Mao Asada completed her own return to the ice (following her mother’s recent passing) with a national title— her fifth. Although Kanako Murakami was the “overnight leader” (meaning after the SP), she was only able to hang on to bronze by the event’s end. In between the two was Akiko Suzuki, who actually bested Asada by one point and won the free skate (a sort of reverse on their performances at NHK, if memory serves me correctly). Fourth place went to Haruka Imai; fifth to Miu Sato, sixth to Satoko Miyahara. Can anyone share if the top three (Asada, Suzuki, Murakami) are officially representing Japan at Worlds, or if Four Continents results will have any bearing on that decision?

RUSSIA
By now you probably know the answer to my earlier question about Evgeny Plushenko competing at Russian Nationals… yes, he did, and yes, he did in fact win the event. How will he fare against the likes of Javier Fernandez at Europeans (not to mention Chan and Dice-K at Worlds) remains to be seen. What’s that you say—Plushy can’t compete at Worlds this year; he can’t possibly have the ISU point minimum, since he hasn’t competed since Vancouver? Well, not to worry, according to this article that ran at Golden Skate:

Plushenko…faces an unexpected challenge on his road to the ISU Championships: he does not have a minimal score which the ISU requires, and there are no competitions for Senior single skaters planned until the Europeans in the end of January.

“We are aware of the problem,” said coach Mishin. “We are working on it, but I am not going to tell you what we are doing.”

Without even speculating on what that might mean, can I just say that this is one of the reasons I don’t like Plushenko returning to competition. That above-the-law vibe is already creeping in… just sayin'.

Enough about that. The ladies event saw Adelina Sotnikova take home her third straight national title, with Julia Lipnitskaia (the one with the insane extensions that I’d like to re-name Julip Gumbyskaia) taking silver, and Alena Leonova getting bronze (she took a tumble on her 3T/3T in the short program; not sure about her free skate). Ksenia Makarova, she of the very rough GP season, managed a 4th place finish. As for Liza “with a triple lutzzzzzz” Tutkamysheva, she too fell on her planned 3/3 in the SP and had to settle for 6th place this year. But, like Sotnikova and Gumbyskaia, she is too young to compete at Worlds this year anyway. That results in Leonova and Makarova heading to Euros, with the third spot apparently up in the air between 7th place finisher Polina Korobeynikova (who apparently may have visa issues) and 9th place finisher Sofia Biryukova.

The pairs event was made a lot less interesting with the absence of both Volosohzar/Trankov and Kavaguti/Smirnov—both of whom got waived from the event due to injury (but will still be able to compete at Euros based on their strong GP performances). This cleared the way for Bazarova/Larionov to win their first-ever national title, with Stolbova/Klimov in silver and Martiusheva/Rogonov in bronze. As for dance, Bobrova/Soloviev nabbed their second straight national title, with Ilinykh/Katsalapov and Riazanova/Tkachenko rounding out the top 3.

This is likely my last post of the year… and incidentally, I’m told this is my 500th post since this blog launched in April 2008. So thanks as always for reading… Happy New Year, wherever you are… and here’s to (at least?) 500 more posts at State of the Skate!

While the U.S. Nats are a Month Away, the Rest of the World Says...Game On!

2011-12-24T22:36:00.000-08:00

Just a quick recap of some International Nationals... if you know what I mean...

JAPAN

MEN: Dice-K got a freakin’ 96+ on his SP, allowing him to win the title (his 5th one) despite having only the third best FS. Yurzuru Hanyu, who pulled off the top-scoring FS of the event, moved from 4th to 3rd overall and earned his first-ever spot on the world team. Sandwiched between the two was Takahiko Kozuka, whose scores indicate he was very, very good, but just not The Best (which as we all know is blazing amazing over in Japan). Fourth place went to Tatsuki Machida, 5th to Takahito Mura, and 6th to Daisuke Murakami. If you’re wondering about Nobunari Oda, you probably didn’t hear that he withdrew from Nationals due to an ongoing injury in his left knee. (I didn’t read as to whether or not his injury attributed to his Trophee Eric Bompard meltdown in the free skate.)

LADIES: Only the SP has been skated as of this posting; with a difference of just .16 points, Kanako Murakami leads Mao Asada (competing for the first time since her mother’s passing just a few weeks ago). Akiko Suzuki is almost four points behind, in 3rd, with Yuki Nishino a little more than a point behind her… and Haruka Imai less than a point behind her, in 5th. So it’s as fierce as ever, the battle for this title.

If you have something you’d like to say once the free skate takes place, please leave a comment!

Elsewhere around the globe:

Russian Nationals are just getting started; rumor has it Plushenko is competing this year. Any confirmations?

French Nationals are complete; Brian Jourbert (remember him?) won easily over Florent Amodio… Yretha Silete won for the women, with Mae Berenice Meite serving once again as runner-up.

And also complete are the Czech, Slovak, and Polish Nationals (one nationals for all three countries)… where Tomas Verner (remember HIM??) won easily over what must’ve been a way-underperforming Michal Brezina. But thanks to Brezina’s 4th place at Worlds last season, I believe both men will be able to represent their republic in Nice a few months from now (unless the outcome of Europeans can play a factor…?)

The holidays may keep me from posting again for a few days, but I hope to at least post some updates on Japanese and Russian Nationals. Until then… best wishes of peace and happiness to you as we near the end of 2011!

We Have A Winner!

2011-12-17T22:41:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Krista H. of Ft. Worth, Texas... her name was the one drawn tonight for a personally autographed copy of Skating on Air!

And big thanks to all who entered; it was great to hear from so many of you! I'll have to consider doing another one of these giveaways somewhere down the road...

Last Chance to Win a Copy of Skating on Air!

2011-12-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to remind everyone that the drawing for a free, personally autographed copy of Skating on Air will be TONIGHT! If you haven't entered yet, please drop me an email with your name and location (city and/or state/province/etc. is fine)at KLawrence997-at-gmail-dot-com. As long as you don't see a post here announcing that we have a winner, there's still time...

Silver and Bronze... a Different View of the 2011 Grand Prix Final

2011-12-13T21:39:00.001-08:00

As this first half of the 2011-12 figure skating season came to its unofficial close over the weekend, there were two sorts of questions filling my head. One was the short, impetuous sort—

Chan feels underappreciated in Canada??
Chan won that free skate over Dice-K???
Do I like the silver unitard look for Kostner? Well, do I???

And then came the more contemplative kind, where I ruminated over the placements of all the skaters… particularly the ones who finished with silver and bronze. Have you noticed that medals are often accompanied by one of three emotions: relief (see Jeremy Abbott at Cup of Russia, where he “held on” by the skin of his components scores to win the bronze)… joy (see Nan Song’s story thus far this season)… or disappointment, often of the bitter variety (see Nancy Kerrigan, Surya Bonaly, Irina Slutskaya…).

So which emotion likely dominated with this GPF’s runner-up medalists? Let’s see…

LADIES
Akiko Suziki’s Silver? Joy. When have we seen her exhibit anything else? Suzuki’s love for this sport lights up her whole body, trails out of her fingertips, and leaves little sparkles on the ice when she’s done spinning on it. And while she surely would have loved to come out at the top of the leader board here, a silver is still her best finish ever at this event… bring on Japanese Nationals, for we’d better see her at Worlds this year!

Alena Leonova’s Bronze? Big-time joy. For in my alternate universe (and maybe even hers), a non-injured Alissa Czisny would have come away with at least a bronze at this event. Which is not to say that Leonova was lucky to get anything—she’s having a great season, and definitely earned it, in my estimations—but in an event that anticipated the pain-free presence of both Czisny and Mao Asada (not to mention Carolina Kostner and everyone else), a medal for Leonova was far from a lock.

MEN
Daisuke Takahashi’s Silver? Let’s call it “gracious relief.” Coming back from a fifth-place SP to win any medal at all would have been impressive… but he more than did that—he won the free skate! Or so I hoped, after seeing all the errors that (once again) plagued Patrick Chan’s program. You’ll see from this article that Dice-K acknowledges Chan’s flaws at the GPF… but rather than complain about his scores, he rationalizes them, concluding that Chan’s jumping technique must be superior to his, and confirming his need to bring a more consistent quad jump to both programs. Was he just being polite, hiding away frustrations? Beats me. All I can say is that Dice-K is one classy gentleman.

Javier Fernandez’s Bronze? Absolute freakin’ joy. I mean, think about it: I remember being happy for him last year because he’d cracked the top 5 at Skate Canada. Now look at him: two effortless quads… two silver GP medals… and now a bronze GPF medal to boot? What a season so far! And to think, this guy was barely breaking into the top 20 at Worlds back in ’09…

PAIRS

Volosohzar/Trankov’s Silver? Disappointment, to judge by the look on Trankov’s face after the scores went up in the Kiss’n’Cry. It was thisclose, to be sure—only .18 separated them from winners Savchenko/Szolkowy—and their content was pretty compatible. But Sav/Szol got the upper hand on the element score, with just enough of a boost on the component side to help them overtake Vol/Trank. Was it a case of the German’s experience helping them “earn” higher components? Maybe. Was Trankov justified in his disappointment? Maybe. But if I was Trankov, I’d cool my jets. His time is coming… and by the way, don’t you love this well-matched rivalry that has developed? (Sorry to say that I love it quite a bit more than Savchenko’s new hairdo.)

Kavaguti/Smirnov’s Bronze? I’m going with relief here… got to admit I’m feeling for these two just a little; it must be hard to basically tread water at an advanced level for several years while others (particularly teammates) swim over and under them. They finished this event a good 25 points behind the top two, so there just isn’t much of a contest for them for gold right now. It’s all about bronze, and they bested their closest competition (Zhang/Zhang) by about 5 points… so I hope they’re reasonably happy with their prize.

DANCE

Virtue/Moir’s Silver? Well, these good-natured kids just seem to go back and forth with the top prizes, volleying with Davis/White, and it’s “only” the GPF, not Worlds, so…

Wait a minute. Did you read what I read about Scott Moir’s reaction to silver? It’s a piss-off? Bitter pill to swallow? Implications that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet; just wait until his wrath is unleashed if they lose gold at Worlds this year… Look out! The little knit stretchy gloves are off! I smell a rumble!!

In other words, pour V/M a big steaming cup of disappointed. With a bitter chaser, thank you very much. So we’ve got an ongoing (but still building) rivalry in Dance, and a fast-developing rivalry in Pairs. LOVE it! Game on, everyone!

Oh, and lest I forget: Pechalat/Bourzat’s Bronze? Let’s call that relative joy—surely they feel things are back in place with this event, having edged out Weaver/Poje and easily defeated the Shib Sibs (aka The Ones Who Got The Bronze When Bourzat Went Down). But, like Kavaguti/Smirnov, they are still no match for the Top Two in their field. And I don’t know if this Skate-Like-An-Egyptian-themed FD is going to get them any closer; last year’s Chaplin program remains my favorite from them.

One more thing to mention: I haven’t mentioned the Junior GPF lately. I plan to rectify that later in the week as I do some more “catching up,” but until then… be sure to watch Jason Brown’s gold medal-winning free skate. He’s still lacking a triple axel—or at least isn’t doing it in competition yet—and of course, that won’t get him very far at the senior level. But when others in this event faltered on that coveted jump, Brown’s stellar technique and beyond-his-years sophistication put him at the top of the heap.

***Don’t forget to enter your name for the chance to win a free, personally autographed copy of my book Skating on Air… check this post from the other day for details. The drawing will be this coming Saturday, December 17.

Le 2011 Grand Prix Finale At-A-Glance

2011-12-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Quebec City… the capital city of the Quebec province, home to the stunning Chateau Frontenac, and the only place I’ve ever been where I could find Crush Crème Soda (with pink labels on the bottles). My husband and I spent part of our honeymoon in Vieux-Quebec back in 1997, and hope to get back there someday. It won’t be anytime soon, unfortunately… so I’ll have to report on the ISU Grand Prix Final and Junior GP Final from my home office, as usual.

(And as you might guess—especially with it not being readily available on IceNetwork—I’m not going to do much with the JGP this week except take note of the placements, especially when they involve Americans.)

Here’s the IceNetwork schedule for the Senior GPF this weekend:

Friday, Dec. 9
1:00 p.m.: Senior ladies short program
2:05 p.m.: Senior short dance
8:00 p.m.: Senior pairs short program
9:15 p.m.: Senior men's short program

Saturday, Dec. 10
3:40 p.m.: Senior ladies free skate
4:55 p.m.: Senior men's free skate
8:15 p.m.: Senior pairs free skate

Sunday, Dec. 11
1:50 p.m.: Senior free dance

And here’s the schedule for Universal Sports, as posted at the USFSA site a few months ago (please note that NO schedule was posted at the Universal web site as of Thursday evening)

Friday, Dec. 9
Ladies short & Short dance (LIVE) - 1-3 p.m.
Pairs short & Men's short (LIVE) - 8-10:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 10
Men's free (LIVE) - 5-6 p.m.
Pairs free (LIVE) - 8:30-10 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 11
Free dance - 5-6 p.m.
Ladies free & Men's free (NBC re-air) - 8-10 p.m.**

** Which means, I believe, that you should be able to see the Ladies and Men's Finals on NBC Sunday afternoon. (UPDATE: A Tweet from Michael Weiss-- who's doing commentary this weekend-- says it'll be at noon Eastern time Sunday.)

So real quick, here are the senior GP Final entrants (last names only) as well as a brief list of some of their strengths/weaknesses:

MEN: Chan, Takahashi, Abbott, Brezina, Fernandez, Hanyu

Chanplus: Reigning World Champion, home-country fave, judges love his mastery of everything artistic
Chanminus: Occasionally falls all over the place,

DiceKplus: Can (at least) match Chan artistically
DiceKminus: Not as many consistent quads, occasionally falls all over the place

Abbottplus: Breathtaking choreography and execution
Abbottminus: Is zero-for-2 on quad attempts this year

Brezinaplus: Solid triple axel, two quads in arsenal
Brezinaminus: Stamina issues; sometimes listens to bad (coaching) advice

Fernandezplus: Wonderful jumping technique; arsenal includes two quads
Fernandezminus: Hasn’t yet earned the component love from judges

Yuzuruplus: Is developing strong sense of artistry at early age
Yuzuruminus: Lacks the experience of his competitors

LADIES: Tuktamysheva, Kostner, Suzuki, Czisny, Leonova

NOTE: Mao Asada was scheduled to compete, but returned to Japan today when she learned her mother is critically ill. It happened too late for an alternate to be brought in.*** UPDATE*** The Japanese press is reporting that Asada's mother has now passed away. She was only 48. Very sad. Prayers and peace to the Asada family.)

Tuktaplus: Has a triple lutz/triple toe, jumps are technically superb, she is waay younger than all other ladies here
Tuktaminus: Triple flip occasionally a problem, not as artistically advance as others

Kostnerplus: Fast, has elegant lines, has an occasional triple toe/triple toe
Kostnerminus: No triple lutz at all, let alone a 3lutz/3toe

Czisnyplus: Is a spinner extraordinaire, amazingly smooth, may try her own triple lutz/triple toe
Czisnyminus: Is frequently dinged for underrotated jumps, still battles nerves on occasion

Suzukiplus: Wonderfully musical, skates with obvious joy
Suzukiminus: Jumps can be inconsistent

Leonovaplus: Very animated; jumping technique seems improved over last year
Leonovaminus: See Suzukiminus

PAIRS: Volosozhar/Trankov, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Zhang/Zhang, Takahashi/Tran, Duhamel/Radford

Vol/Trankplus: Power skaters, very consistent, great chemistry
Vol/Trankminus: Still lacks team experience of other top couples

Sav/Szolplus: Power skaters, reigning world champs, inventive FS
Sav/Szolminus: Occasionally self-destructs mid-program

Kav/Smirplus: Artistically more delicate, jumping has improved
Kav/Smirminus: Throw jumps aren’t as steady as other two

Zhang/Zhangplus: Tons of experience, huge throw jumps
Zhang/Zhangminus: Can seem emotionally detached from programs

Taka/Tranplus: Young, budding talent with fresh music and moves
Taka/Tranminus: Inexperience amongst veterans

Duh/Radplus: Power skaters, good jumping
Duh/Radminus: Have been known to engage in (unintentional) bloodshed during programs

DANCE: Davis/White, Virtue/Moir, Shibutani/Shibutani, Bobrova/Soloviev, Pechalat/Bourzat, Weaver/Poje

Davis/Whiteplus: To-swoon-for twizzles, reigning world champs, FD that many are already saying should become “their signature dance”
Davis/Whiteminus: As White demonstrated at Cup of Russia, they are hardly infallible as skaters. A stumble like he took there in the SD could make all the difference in a tight race with V/M.

Virtue/Moirplus: Reigning OGMs, home country advantage, charming FD
Virtue/Moirminus: though they haven’t competed head-to-head since Worlds, V/M’s FD has not scored as highly as D/W’s in both couples’ two outings so far this season.

Shibsplus: Classic dance style, well-established for their ages
Shibsminus: Current free dance might be seen as too similar to previous free dance

Bobroplus: Classic Russian style, FD is drama-riffic
Bobrominus: Drama-riffic might cross the line to overwrought

Pech/Bourplus: Strong, inventive, Bourzat skating healthy again (following a bronchitis-laced trip to Skate America)
Pech/Bourminus: in a likely battle for bronze, Pech/Bour could be outdrama-ed by either Bobrova/Soloviev or Weaver/Poje

Weaver/Pojeplus: Home country advantage; plus their stock continues to rise even with V/M on the scene full-time
Weaver/Pojeminus: Weaver can’t seem to get the strap fixed on her FD costume (KIDDING)

Enjoy the weekend of skating, everyone!

Want to Win a Free Copy of "Skating on Air"? Read on...

2011-12-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

So in this holiday season of giving, what better time to give away a free, personally autographed copy of my book Skating on Air?

You see a little description for it on the left side of the page, and have probably "heard" me talk about it from time to time. You can read more about it here ... and if you'd like to enter a drawing for a free copy, please send me an email at KLawrence997-at-gmail-dot-com (sorry, got to spell it out to avoid the spammers).

This is open ALL readers from ANY country-- if you're unable to get a copy of Skating on Air where you live (such as many countries in Asia, where I don't think McFarland has a distributor)... here's your chance to get one shipped for free!

If you have any question about the email address, check out my profile further down the page... you should find it there as well.

I'll post another notice about this drawing after the ISU GP Final, and then plan to do said drawing on Saturday, December 17 (10 days from now).

Any other questions? Please shoot me an email or post it in the comments.

Good luck!

Meanwhile, Back At the Ice Ranch… (catching up on non-GP developments)

2011-12-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

As you’re probably aware, the world kept right on spinning as the ISU Grand Prix progressed between October and November—even when it came to the rest of the figure skating world. Among the most noteworthy developments (in chronological order):

+ Lepisto is out for the season… again
For those who say nerves have been the downfall of many a great skater— in a literal sense, that applies to athletes in general. Here in Indianapolis we’re still waiting to see if nerve damage to the neck of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning can ever heal well enough for him to play at all, let alone this football season. And over in Finland, nerve damage is also at the heart of what’s keeping 2010 World Bronze Medalist Laura Lepisto out of her sport of choice. In her case, it’s apparently nerves in one of her feet that need to heal before she can take the ice again… which she says is unlikely to happen this season. Lepisto will turn 24 next April.

+ Lady is a Champ: Bonhomme wins Battle of the Blades
For followers of the hit Canadian TV series Battle of the Blades, things really came full circle this particular season. As I mentioned here at the end of August, the planned “twist” was for one of the hockey players-turning-figure-skaters to be, for the first time ever on the show, a female (Tessa Bonhomme). But the entire show (not to mention hockey fans) were dealt a savage blow when, less than a month before its season premiere, fellow competitor Wade Belak died at age 35. The show soldiered on, however… and by its conclusion in November, the winner was none other than Bonhomme (skating with David Pelletier). If you’re curious how she and Pelletier looked out there in front of the cameras, check out this clip from week 7.

+ Phaneuf joins team Orser
If you’re a veteran elite figure skater who has remained with the same coach/coaches since the early days, chances are slim that you’ll jump ship, even if your skating is in a sub-par slump. But if you’re Canadian champion Cynthia Phaneuf—who, aside from that national victory, has been unable to duplicate the jumping consistency that helped her come in 5th at Worlds in 2010—you don’t have much use for the odds at this point. So in the wake of back-to-back disappointing GP outings (7th at Skate Canada; 9th at NHK Trophy), the 23 year-old Phaneuf has parted ways with Annie Barabé and Sophie Richard to relocate to Toronto, and train with Brian Orser. She had been coached by Barabe/Richard since age 9. Orser’s other high-profile students include USA’s Christina Gao and Spain’s Javier Fernandez; in the past, he coached Adam Rippon and (of course) Kim Yu-Na.

+ Kwan is among the HOF nominees
Some might say “It’s about time!!” but, in all fairness, it happened as soon as possible: Michelle Kwan is among the new batch of nominees to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Now that Kwan has been out of competitive figure skating for six years, she is eligible… along with fellow nominees Rudy Galindo (1996 National Champion and ’96 World Bronze Medalist) and Robert “Bobby” Specht, who medaled nationally in pairs (1941) and won the men’s title in ’42. Jef Billings (designer) and Lori Nichol (choreographer) are nominated too, under the “creative impact” category. The official HOF Class of 2012 will be announced later this month, with the induction ceremony taking place at 2012 U.S. Nationals in San Jose.

+ Lysacek Won’t Be at Nationals… Either
Speaking of 2012 U.S. Nationals—if you were crossing your fingers for Evan Lysacek to make good on his early-season assertions to be competing in San Jose, it’s time to put your fingers to better use. Whether he wants to be there or not, it appears that U.S. Figure Skating and the Creative Artists Agency (which now represents Lysacek) could not reach the proverbial agreement necessary to get him out there and see how he ranks nearly two years past Vancouver. According to icenetwork.com, CAA is citing “contractual obligations” for Lysacek’s absence. Chicago Tribune’s Phil Hersh continues to track the gory (read: money-related) details of Lysacek’s “negotiations,” so you can read much more about them here.

+ Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Plushy
And speaking of Vancouver… Evgeny Plushenko continues to rattle his platinum medal-lined cages every so often to make sure we know he plans to be competing in 2014. The latest rattle came last week, when he announced he’s “leaving politics” in order to train for Sochi. What, you didn’t know he was in politics? Feel free to read the ESPN.com article that details his involvement a little further. Don’t care WHERE he is or WHAT his plans are? Well, join the club… that’s why my mention of him ends here.

Rostelecom Cup in Review… and Oh the Many Ways to Fill That Cup

2011-11-29T21:36:00.000-08:00

With all due respect, I’m not going to talk much about the Pairs and Dance events in Moscow last weekend. For the most part, they unfolded as expected. Yes, Charlie White stumbled in the SD, but he and Meryl Davis still won handily. And yes, Savchenko/Szolkowy had (most of) their groove back and defeated Kavaguti/Smirnov, but we all know the real fun will come when these two are competing against Volosohzar/Trankov in the Final.

So… let’s instead get into what some of the single skaters appeared to have in their respective “Cups” of Russia:

MEN…
Cup of good fortune: Yuzuru Hanyu
He was sort of in that Jupiter-must-align-with-Mars situation as far as qualifying for the GP Final went… which included winning at CoR, which meant defeating the likes of Abbott (Cup of China winner), Brezina (Skate America winner), and Fernandez (2-time silver medalist this season). And guess what? He pulled it off, despite two falls in his own program. Not bad for a kid young enough to make Justin Bieber look a little old.

Cup of tears: Brandon Mroz
OK, so he may not have wept publicly. But does Mroz know how to ride the gamut of highs and lows or what? In 2009 he’s a U.S. silver medalist; in 2009-10 he couldn’t compete well to save his life. In late 2010 he soared on the GP circuit; that same season he finished well out of the medals at Nationals. This season he becomes the first-ever on the quad lutz list; this same season he finishes in last place at both his GP assignments! It’s enough to give a guy career whiplash… but on the bright side…he’s due for a positive shift. Maybe at Nationals 2012?

Cup of relief*: Jeremy Abbott
Hanyu’s not the only recipient of good fortune, as Abbott himself surely knows: he won Cup of China with third place finishes in both the SP and FS, and he won bronze (and qualified for the GP Final) with a fifth place FS finish at CoR. But make no mistake, when it all comes together—as it did with his top-flight SP here—he is right in the mix with the best of them.

*(Yes, I considered “cup of blood from his own hand” but that seemed so tasteless…)

Cup of angst with a dash of never mind: Javier Fernandez
Three-hundredths of a point—that was the difference between gold and silver in the men’s event. Remember when Fernandez came off the ice with a self-deprecating, universally understood “Aaugh!” after doubling part of his combo in the SP? Turns out it was with good reason: that triple could have easily put him in the winner’s circle a day later, had all other things been equal. But as nice as that win would have been… the important thing was that he’d done enough (with a silver) to go to his first-ever GP Final. Bien hecho, Javier!

LADIES…

Cup of Sweet Components: Mao Asada
Cup of Wuz Robbed pt. 1: Alena Leonova
“Asada’s got history and the component edge”… so I said last week as I guesstimated a favorite for this event. But when I mentioned skaters with a technical advantage, I failed to mention Alena Leonova. My mistake… for while she doesn’t have the triple lutz/triple toe of some of her younger countrywomen, she’s got a reliable 3Toe/3Toe and seems to have much better jumps all around this season. Step-outs and hop-outs of poorly checked landings used to hinder her spunky performances… but not so much now. Yes, she had a fall in her FS here (on a double axel near the program’s end), but she also had twice as many successful triples than Asada. It wasn’t that she wasn’t recognized for this; she had the higher technical score of the two. But Asada out-component-ed her more than she out-techincal-ed Asada. It happens. The good news is that both ladies are in the GP Final.

Cup of wuz robbed pt. 2: Sofia Biryukova
I admittedly wasn’t paying as much attention to this battle as much as the previous one, but if you take a look at Vlad Luchianov’s Commentary, you can see something similar took place in the battle for bronze: one Russian skater, 17 year old Sofia Biryukova, lost the battle for third place against 15 year old teammate Adelina Sotnikova. This, despite a fall on the triple lutz in Sotnikova’s SP, and a fall on the triple flip in the FS (among other things)— while Biryukova’s programs were clean. Yes, Sotnikova’s jumps were slightly more difficult—which is apparently why the two were nearly even on the tech side (with a slight edge from Biryukova). But components saved the day again—this time for Sotnikova, whose scores totaled as much as a three point difference between she and Biryukova… and put the bronze in Sotnikova’s hands, also putting her in 1st alternate position for the GP Final. What Vlad drew attention to in his post is now Sotnikova has been touted by the Russian Skating Federation as the “main hope” of Russian skating at the Sochi Olympics… and the judging at Rostelecom already had the not-so-faint air of someone getting “held up” by the components (read: artistic scores) when their technical skating was subpar. Stay tuned, folks…

Cup of what’s up?: Rachael Flatt & Agnes Zawadzki
In 19 year-old Flatt’s case, the guess is that Stanford’s eating into her training time—while she at least skated clean here, her Firebird FS was lutz-free and lacked a spark. For Zawadzki, my hope is that she’s grown taller since last year (now standing 5’6”) and is still adjusting… darn puberty monsters and all that. But both ladies have been rather painful to watch this GP season, especially knowing what they are (or were once?) capable of.

Cup of tears: Christine Gao
On the other hand, Gao looked quite good at her first GP assignment… but completely fell apart in Moscow, staying soundly in last place throughout. “We’ll get through this… all right?” we heard her coach Brian Orser saying in consolation as she came off the FS nearly crying already. By the time her overall score (of 117) was posted, they were at least trying to make light of the fact that a 117 is what she more likely expects from the free skate alone. Back to the drawing board she goes…

So real quick, here are the senior GP Final entrants:

MEN: Chan, Takahashi, Abbott, Brezina, Fernandez, Hanyu
ALTS: Song, Kozuka, Rippon

LADIES: Tuktamysheva, Asada, Kostner, Suzuki, Czisny, Leonova
ALTS: Sotnikova, Nagasu, Wagner

PAIRS: Volosozhar/Trankov, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Zhang/Zhang, Takahashi/Tran, Duhamel/Radford
ALTS: M-T/Moscovitch, Bazarova/Larionov, Sui/Han

DANCE: Davis/White, Virtue/Moir, Shibutani/Shibutani, Bobrova/Soloviev, Pechalat/Bourzat, Weaver/Poje
ALTS: Cappellini/Lanotte, Ilinykh/Katsalapov, Tobias/Stagniunas

Next stop (in 2 weeks): Quebec City! But don’t worry, there’s be some blog posts in the interim…

2011 Rostelecom Cup of Russia Preview

2011-11-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

One more thing to add about Trophee Eric Bompard before stepping on into the Rostelecom Cup of Russia…

I meant to note that of all the creative flourishes that went along with the World Feed coverage of TEB, there was one shot I think we all could have done without: the extra close-up of Nobunari Oda in the Kiss-n-Cry, after his scores were read, as his eyes rimmed with tears. By then everyone knew he’d had a horrible day on the ice, not to mention completely shattered any chance of making the GP Final… and that shot, to me, was exploitive and over-the-line. It’s the Kiss-n-Cry, TV-directing folks. It happens. Leave him alone next time.

Hopefully CoR will have happier close-ups to choose from. Here’s where to catch it in the U.S.:

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

Friday, Nov. 25
6:00 a.m.: Ladies short program
7:35 a.m.: Pairs short program
9:45 a.m.: Men's short program
11:20 a.m.: Short dance

Saturday, Nov. 26
5:00 a.m.: Ladies free skate
6:45 a.m.: Pairs free skate
8:25 a.m.: Men's free skate
10:25 a.m.: Free dance

On Universal Sports (available over-the-air or via dish/satellite, depending on where you live):

Saturday, Nov. 26
4- 6 p.m.: Pairs & Men’s Free Skate

8-10 p.m.: Free Dance

This will be one of NBC’s “delayed” weeks, as it will not carry the Ladies Free Skate until 1-3 p.m. NEXT Saturday 12/3… with a Universal repeat of it scheduled that night from 7-9 p.m.

MEN—

Who’s there: Andrei Rogozine, Michal Brezina, Yuzuru Hanyu, Artur Gachinski, Sergei Voronov, Konstantin Menshov, Javier Fernandez, Jeremy Abbott, Brandon Mroz (Tomas Verner was originally scheduled here but has withdrawn)

Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Abbott, Brezina, Fernandez, Gachinski, Hanyu
Dark Horse: Mroz
Has a quad, or quads: Brezina, Hanyu, Gachinski, Fernandez, Mroz
Has a quad maybe: Everyone else
Senior GP Debut: None
Favorite: Hard to say; both Brezina and Abbott have a victory under their GP belts this season… probably Brezina though.
Other: Abbott and Fernandez are the ones at CoR that could do well enough to make the GP Final.

LADIES—

Who’s there: Amelie Lacoste, Kiira Korpi, Mao Asada, Haruka Imai, Sofia Biryukova, Alena Leonova, Adelina Sotnikova, Rachael Flatt, Christina Gao, Agnes Zawadzki

Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Asada, Biryukova, Imai, Leonova, Sotnikova
Dark Horse: Any of the U.S. ladies
Who might have a 3/3 (triple/triple): Korpi, Imai, Biryukova, Sotnikova, Leonova, Gao
Senior GP Debut: Biryukova
Favorite: Asada’s got history and the component edge; Biryukova and Sotnikova have the jumping advantage.
Other: Leonova, Asada, and Sotnikova all have shots at the GP final depending on how they do at CoR.

PAIRS—

Who’s there: Jones/Gaskell, Hausch/Wende, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Berton/Hotarek, Gerboldt/Enbert, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Stolbova/Klimov, Cain/Reagan

Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Berton/Hotarek, Gerboldt/Enbert, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Savchenko/Szolkowy
Dark Horse: Hausch/Wende
Senior GP Debut: Jones/Gaskell and Cain/Reagan
Favorite: Based on what I’ve seen this season, I’d now lean more to Kavaguti/Smirnov than Savchenko/Szolkowy.
Other: The two I just mentioned as faves are already locked into the GP Final, so the only here with a (very, very) outside chance to join them would be Berton/Hotarek.

DANCE—

Who’s there: Weaver/Poje, Carron/Jones, Reed/Reed, Tobias/Stagniunas, Bobrova/Soloviev, Riazanova/Tkachenko, Pushkash/Guerreiro, Davis/White

Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Bobrova/Soloviev, Davis/White, Tobias/Stagniunas, Weaver/Poje
Dark Horse: Carron/Jones
Senior GP Debut: None
Favorite: Davis/White
Other: Davis/White should be a lock for the GP Final after this weekend; Weaver/Poje are already in… Bobrova/Soloviev can qualify with 4th place or better, I think.

Enjoy your final stop on the regular GP tour…!

TEB 2011 and the Not-So-Funny Comedy of Errors

2011-11-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

For better or worse, it seemed those in charge of the World Feed coming out of Paris (for this past weekend’s Trophee Eric Bompard) were aiming to be a little more artistique with their efforts than other countries. From that giant glowing light bulb-o-color behind the skaters in the Kiss-n-Cry, to the split screen of skaters and coaches occasionally shown during replays (such as with Nobunari Oda—oy!—but I’m getting ahead of myself), to the s-l-o-w dissolves most often employed as an athlete sat and watched the highlights/lowlights of their performance.

Unfortunately, many of those blips on the radar of creativity were overshadowed by storms of wild errors, disappointing placements, and widespread discontent by the time this penultimate GP qualifier was history.

But let’s start with the bright and/or anticipated bright spots of TEB…

+ Liza Tutamysheva, who I’d like to begin calling Liza With A Lutzzzzz if that’s okay with you… we’ve only seen her compete once before at the senior GP level, but I’m not at all surprised that she came away with her second gold of the season—especially when her two closest competitors had slightly flawed performances. Her ease with triple-triples may or may not survive the onset of puberty… but for now, she’s got what most other GP ladies don’t. And she’s got just enough grace and musicality to back it up.

+ Song Nan, whose name I’d like to say in that particular order from now on (and will try to remember to so with other Chinese skaters from here on out). I kept Song in my (predicted) top 5 for this event, not at all sure he’d be able to repeat the sort of jumping success he’d had at Cup of China but figuring he’d do pretty well even if he hit 60% of his CoCH jumps. Next thing I know, he’s sitting comfortably in 2nd place throughout the event, with the only one ahead being the reigning WORLD CHAMPION. How cool is that?

+ The entire dance lineup, meaning the placement of all who competed in ice dance at TEB. Virtue/Moir for the win, Pechalat/Bourzat for silver, Cappellini/Lannotte for bronze, the New Team (Chock/Bates) down in 5th, the first-ever-on-the-circuit Spanish dance team (Hurtado/Diaz) bringing up the rear… all eight teams staying in their same placement throughout the event; all eight teams separated by fairly healthy margins. Did we see it all coming (especially V/M)? Probably. Did we enjoy the event any less? Probably not. And to see (Fabian) Bourzat healthy again (and bronchitis-free) was likely worth the price of admission for those in attendance…

Which brings us to Patrick Chan, who fans would likely pay to watch drive the Zamboni these days, let alone skate. Yes, he won again—no surprise there. Yes, he won substantially despite multiple mistakes… no surprise there either, to be honest. It was the mistakes themselves that were the surprises: 2 flip-outs on jumps considerably simpler than his 2 quads or triple axels (although the axel was doubled; yet another mistake), and a freak fall during a footwork (or simply a transition?) sequence. Should he still have won with all these errors… plus a missed quad in the SP? In this case, yes. But if something similar happens on a night when, say, a Takahashi or Kozuka is in top form… I guess we’ll find out at the GP Final, huh?

Of course, Chan was hardly the only skater to suffer from the freaky-deaky mistakes at TEB…

+ Volosohzar/Trankov had a trip/fall immediately after their successful triple twist. Didn’t really interrupt the program, but I don’t think I’ve seen a fall like that before…

+ Madison Chock took an odd tumble on twizzles when Evan Bates seemed to stop traveling with his twizzles, and she crashed into him. But really, if twizzles are truly “the quads” of ice dance (as commentators in the know like to say), the real oddity is that this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often.

+ Duhamel/Radford had side-by-side falls, a throw jump fall, and they accidentally collided at one point while skating with their backs to each other. “Three falls and we get a 115??” Duhamel said incredulously in the Kiss-n-Cry. Somewhere in that arena, you’ve gotta think 4thplace Evora/Ladwig (who fell only once) were wondering the same thing.

+ Carolina Kostner, who has an interesting rivalry brewing with Czisny this season. They’re very compatible on components now, so it’s repeatedly coming down to the jumps… and as with Czisny, Kostner typically has a flaw or two. This time Kostner’s included a membership in the Footwork SPLAT Club; fortunately for her, it prompted little more than embarrassment on her part.

+ The same cannot be said for Nobunari Oda, as I mentioned earlier. The guy had almost as many “mishaps” as all the other TEB competitors put together. By my count: 1) a popped toe loop on the end of his first combination, 2) a doubled triple (lutz?) that also prompted a step out, 3) popped triple loop, 4) a fall during a footwork sequence that was followed by him skating around for at least the next 10-15 seconds trying to figure out where to resume the program, 5) an incomplete triple axel that had him landing forward and falling a second time, 6) a fall on a triple lutz, and 7) a waltz jump (which, while quite lovely, is no replacement for a triple jump in a Grand Prix program). But while you can’t blame the commentators for wondering out loud if he’d injured himself… those of us who remember oddly disoriented programs from Oda as far back as 2006 (Four Continents, anyone?) knew all too well that he probably hadn’t.

+ Maybe he should’ve taken a page from Kevin Reynolds’ TEB experience… where his SP scores apparently made him so sick he developed stomach flu and had to withdraw from the event...

Let’s hope Rostelecom goes a little better for everyone!

2011 Trophee Eric Bompard Preview

2011-11-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

Vive la France! Pass the pain du chocolat… it’s Trophee Eric Bompard!

Here’s where to watch (particularly if you live in the U.S.):

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

Friday, Nov. 18
9:00 a.m.: Men's short program

10:45 a.m.: Pairs short program

12:15 p.m.: Ladies short program

2:00 p.m.: Short dance

Saturday, Nov. 19

7:30 a.m.: Men's free skate

9:30 a.m.: Pairs free skate

12:30 p.m.: Ladies free skate

2:30 p.m.: Free dance

On Universal Sports (available over-the-air or via dish/satellite, depending on where you live):

Saturday, Nov. 19

6- 8 p.m.: Pairs & Men’s Free Skate

9-11p.m.: Free Dance

This will be one of NBC’s “delayed” weeks, as it will not carry the Ladies Free Skate until 2-4 p.m. NEXT Sunday 11/27… with a Universal repeat of it scheduled from 4-6 p.m.

The competitors look like this…

MEN—

Who’s there: Patrick Chan, Kevin Reynolds, Nan Song, Michal Brezina, Florent Amodio, Chaffik Besseghier, Nobunari Oda, Alexander Majorov, Adam Rippon

Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Brezina, Chan, Oda, Rippon, Song
Dark Horse: Amodio
Has a quad, or quads: Chan, Reynolds, Song, Brezina, Oda
Has a quad maybe: Everyone else… except Amodio
Senior GP Debut: None
Favorite: That would be Chan, Chan, and oh yeah, Chan
Other: Majorov replaces Evan Lysacek, who was originally set to skate here… and Brian Joubert withdrew from TEB earlier in the week due to injury—no replacement.)

LADIES—

Who’s there: Yrethe Silete, Lena Marrocco, Mae Berenice Meite, Kanako Murakami, Carolina Kostner, Elizaveta Tutkamysheva, Sonia Lafuente, Viktoria Helgesson, Alissa Czisny
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Czisny, Helgesson, Kostner, Murakami, Tutkamysheva
Dark Horse: Meite
Who might have a 3/3 (triple/triple): Kostner, Czisny, Tutkamysheva, Murakami
Senior GP Debut: Silete
Favorite: Tough call, as Czisny AND Kostner AND Tutkamysheva all have one win apiece so far this GP season. My personal preference would be Czisny, though…
Other: Lafuente replaces Laura Lepisto, who announced earlier this week she’s out for the season with an injury… Sarah Hecken has also withdrawn from the event—no replacement.

PAIRS—

Who’s there: Duhamel/Radford, Dube/Wolfe, Dong/Wu, James/Cipres, Bazarova/Larionov, Stolbova/Klimov, Volosohzar/Trankov, Evora/Ladwig

Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Bazarova/Larionov, Duhamel/Radford, Evora/Ladwig, Volosohzar/Trankov
Dark Horse: Stolbova/Klimov
Senior GP Debut: James/Cipres (of France); Stolbova/Klimov (of Russia)
Favorite: Gotta be Volo/Trank
Other: James/Cipres replaces Canac/Bonheur (both of France)… and the TBD spot for France ultimately went to Dube/Wolfe.

DANCE—

Who’s there: Virtue/Moir, Huang/Zheng, Pechalat/Bourzat, Cappellini/Lanotte, Gorshkova/Butikov, Ilinykh/Katsalapov, Hurtado/Diaz, Chock/Bates.
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Cappellini/Lanotte, Ilinykh/Katsalapov, Pechalat/Bourzat, Virtue/Moir,
Dark Horse: Chock/Bates
Senior GP Debut: Hurtado/Diaz (Spain’s first-ever dance team in ISU competition)
Favorite: V/M, but something tells me Pechalat/Bourzat will be well-received nonetheless (especially now that Bourzat has recovered from his bronchitis)
Other: The TBD spot for France ultimately went to Chock/Bates.

Bon chance!!

NHK 2011 Hits and Misses… or, How Team Japan Showed Some Serious National Love

2011-11-16T07:58:00.000-08:00

When you categorize a GP event into Hits and Misses (as I’ve done below) and realize after doing so that half of the “Hits” were made by skaters representing the home country, you might consider re-naming your piece. But there were those that made a splash (or re-established themselves) last weekend, and those that garnered attention for all the wrong reasons. Not a lot of in-between. So I stand by the concept!

HITS…

Akiko Suzuki—for bringing it big time, in front of a home crowd, at age 26. Yes, I know she popped 2 jumps in the back end of her FS—but I’m thrilled that she had a big enough margin with the SP score to retain the lead. (By the way, the joy she expressed at the end of that SP was one of the best moments of the entire competition—and given some of the incredible skating at NHK this year, that’s saying something.)

Mao Asada—for doing much of the same with perhaps an even bigger hurdle to overcome: her entire 2010-11 season. (And all without a triple axel attempt… unless you count her popped axel in the SP.)

Daisuke Takahashi—for being the best Dice-K he can be… which is pretty damn amazing. (90+ points for an SP without a quad?! Who else can do that??)

Takahiko Kozuka—for throwing down the gauntlet for Dice-K in magical fashion… which is to say that by doing some of his best work at NHK, I think he inspired Takahashi to do the same.

Takahashi/Tran—for looking SO happy with their efforts in the FS, even though they weren’t perfect.

Alena Leonova—for, at least this week, making people forget about Those Russian Teenagers. (Amazing but true—now at age 20; she’s no longer one of them.)

Kavaguti/Smirnov—for getting a victory for Russia while on Japanese soil… a true win-win situation in this particular case. (And no small feat, given the Sav/Szol’s track record.)

The Shibutanis—For nabbing their first senior GP victory, even if it wasn’t universally endorsed (former fellow competitor John Kerr, for example, Tweeted that while it was an “interesting” competition, he thought Weaver/Poje were the clear winners.)

Ross Miner—for being there to accept the bronze medal when three skaters ahead of him apparently had no interest in doing so.

Berton/Hotarek—For nicely synced, side-by-side triple toe/double toe/double toes that likely made the difference between 4th and 5th place. (I’m guessing sometime soon, it’ll make the difference for a medal.)

MISSES…

Savchenko/Szolkowy—for showing us their meltdowns come in a rainbow of flavors. Back in 2009 (at Trophee Eric Bompard), it was the spiral sequence and death spiral that best showed us something was very amiss. This time, it’s the popped side-by-side axels and ill-timed (and ultimately aborted) lift near the end of their FS. (Can’t blame the fall on the throw 3axel yet; they haven’t proven it’s something they can do.) Maybe odd-year season starts just aren’t their thing….

Brandon Mroz—for managing to hit perhaps the highest and lowest points of his career to date, all within a span of about 26 hours. Good grief.

Agnes Zawadzki—for what has to be a disappointing season debut (8th place), given the impression she quickly made last year with her SPs (if not her free skates, finishing 4th and 6th at her two GP events). Does anyone know if she’s grown substantially since last year? She’s now standing 5’6” (1.68 M), which puts her just an inch below the tallest female singles currently on the GP circuit… (Those would be Carolina Kostner and Germany’s Sarah Hecken.)

Dance warm-ups—turns out the crash we saw between The Reeds and USA’s K/G-S (please don’t make me type out their entire name every time I mention them!) was only part of the mayhem. On morning practices that same day, Paul/Islam (of Canada) collided with the Italian team (Alessandrini/Vaturi) and Islam suffered a cut to the back of the leg, forcing their withdrawal from the event. And Russian Elena Ilinykh crashed into the boards during that same warmup that had the Reed/K/G-S collision…while she and partner Nikita Katsalapov still competed (and won bronze), her knee injury kept them out of the post-competition exhibitions.

Weaver/Poje—no injury here, but maybe their spirits took a bit of a beating as they lost to the Shib Sibs by just .09 points… a loss that could have been reversed by “simply” keeping their too-long lift out of penalty range. Ouch indeed.

I know I’m late getting this out (thanks for your patience), but still look for the Paris/TEB preview Thursday evening!

NHK Trophy 2011 Preview

2011-11-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

Get your stuffed animals ready to throw… it’s time for the NHK Trophy!

First, here’s where to watch (particularly if you live in the U.S.):

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

Friday, Nov. 11
12:55 a.m.: Short dance
2:45 a.m.: Pairs short program
5:15 a.m.: Ladies short program
10 p.m.: Free dance

Saturday, Nov. 12
12:05 a.m.: Pairs free skate
2:30 a.m.: Men's short program
5:00 a.m.: Ladies free skate
10:55 p.m.: Men's free skate

On Universal Sports (available over-the-air or via dish/satellite, depending on where you live):

Saturday, Nov. 12
6- 8 p.m.: Pairs Free Skate & Free Dance

Sunday, Nov. 13
6-8 p.m.: Men’s Free Skate

NBC will carry the Ladies Free Skate from 2-4 p.m. Sunday 11/13… with a Universal repeat of it scheduled from 9:30-11:30 p.m.

As for the competitors…

NHK MEN—

Who’s there: Tomas Verner, Samuel Contesti, Takahiko Kozuka, Daisuke Takahashi, Tatsuki Machida, Konstantin Menshov, Armin Mahbanoozadeh, Ross Miner, and Brandon Mroz. (Adrian Schultheiss has withdrawn with a back injury.)

Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Kozuka, Machida, Mroz, Takahashi, Verner
Dark Horse: Contesti
Has a quad, or quads: Kozuka, Takahashi, Mroz, Machida, Menshov
Has a quad maybe: Verner, Mahbanoozadeh
Senior GP Debut: None
Favorite: Gotta be a toss-up between Kozuka and Dice-K, neither of which skated their best at Sk8AM a few weeks back but are still the standouts in this lineup.
Other: A lot of eyes are likely to be on Mroz, if only to see if he can land his quad lutz at a GP event.

LADIES—

Who’s there: Cynthia Phaneuf, Kiira Korpi, Mae Berenice Meite, Elene Gedevanishvili, Mao Asada, Akiko Suzuki, Shoko Ishikawa, Alena Leonova, Ashley Wagner, Agnes Zawadzki

Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Asada, Leonova, Suzuki, Wagner, Zawadzki
Dark Horse: Korpi or Phaneuf
Who might have a 3/3 (triple/triple): Ummmm…. Maybe no one here?
Senior GP Debut: None
Favorite: With Asada still a wild card as far as I know, this is tough. I’ll go with Suzuki, but if Asada is back on track…or Leonova has a great day… all bets are off.
Other: Back in the summer it appeared that Korpi and Tomas Verner would both be competing with a hip-hop version of Carmina Burana, but it appears that Korpi has now opted to stick with her Over the Rainbow SP from last year. In other “colorful” news, look for Zawadzki to use Rhapsody in Blue for her FS.

PAIRS—

Who’s there: Purich/Schultz, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Berton/Hotarek, Takahashi/Tran, Iliushechkina/Maisuradze, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Castelli/Shnapir, Denney/Coughlin (who got the invite here with Pang/Tong pulled out of their GP events)

Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Denney/Coughlin, Iliushechkina/Maisuradze, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Savchenko/Szolkowy,
Dark Horse: Berton/Hotarek
Senior GP Debut: Purich/Schultz (of Canada)
Favorite: It’ll be all about Sav/Szol and Kava/Smir, with Sav/Szol most likely improving on their Sk8AM performance to win yet again.
Other…: I read that Sav/Szol seemed to really be at odds with each other during the Sk8AM trip. If any of you have more info or an update, please share! I’ll probably be watching their warm-up and Kiss-n-Cry body language more than usual this time…

DANCE—

Who’s there: Paul/Islam, Weaver/Poje, Zhiganshina/Gazsi, Alessandrini/Vaturi, Reed/Reed, Ilinykh/Katsalapov, Kriengkrairut/Giulietti-Schmitt, Shibutani/Shibutani

Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Ilinykh/Katsalapov, Paul/Islam, Shibutani/Shibutani, Weaver/Poje
Dark Horse: Zhiganshina/Gazsi
Senior GP Debut: Alessandrini/Vaturi (of Italy)
Favorite: Both the Shib Sibs and Weaver/Poje have picked up silver medals in the past few GP weeks, but I think W/P will have the definite advantage.

I'll post my post-event analysis as soon as I can... enjoy NHK!!

Abbott’s “Single-Handed” Win of Cup of China, and Other Dreamy Tales

2011-11-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

The directors for the World Feed of Cup of China have a similar game plan every year when it comes to camera shots: show the skater, show the skater’s skates up close, show at least one spin from a dizzying overhead angle, and show the crowd waaay too soon after the skater hits the final pose. I’ve complained about it in the past, but have (reluctantly) come to accept the way they do things over in Shanghai.

So this time, as I cringed at the multitude of skate shots, I couldn’t help but notice the fog that enveloped the rink on Day 1 of competition (during all the “short” events). Sure, it was basic science causing the problem… but especially since said problem started clearing up by Day 2, it made me think of Day 1 as a sort of long-playing dream on ice. I figure those that ultimately did well at Cup of China might feel similarly. But what about the rest… did those dreams turn to… nightmares?! (Cue scary music)

Let’s see how this shook out with a few examples from each discipline:

MEN

Jeremy Abbott dreamed of winning Cup of China even if he didn’t perform the best technically...

DREAM COME TRUE. Who’d have known a hand down on the ice would be the BEST part of an already superb program? Abbott may have fallen on his quad, popped a triple axel, and left out any triple/triple combos, but his FS to Exogenesis: Symphony pt. 3 by Muse is stunning. STUNNING! And if you’re not sure what I’m talking about regarding the hand down on the ice, you can check the program out here.

Nan Song dreamed of jumping well enough to land on the podium...

DREAM COME TRUE. Sk8AM had its van der Perren; Sk8CAN had its Fernandez (who I forgot to cheer about last week—sorry—awesome job!) And now, CoC has its Song—a surprise medal by someone who skated a surprise Lights Out free skate (2 quad toes! 2 triple axels! 2 of those jumps in combination with other triples! And all of them rock solid!!) But what makes this a particularly sweet “song” is the fact that this is the same guy who came in dead last at last year’s Skate America, and 22nd at Worlds earlier this year.

Artur Gachinski and Yuzuru Hanyu dreamed of retaining their 1-2 positions on the leader board after the free skate...

NIGHTMARE x 2. There was no reason to think either one of these young’uns would falter in the free skate… until both of them did just that, with Hanyu falling twice and Gachinski seeming to come undone once he missed his quad. Hang in there, kids—you’ve got time yet.

LADIES

Carolina Kostner dreamed of doing well enough at CoC to become one of the first to qualify for the GP Final…

DREAM COME TRUE. It wasn’t a flawless skate, but it was enough to give Kostner a spot one better than she earned at Sk8AM 2 weeks ago.

Mirai Nagasu dreamed of making a notable improvement to her skating here, just one week after coming up with 5th place at Sk8CAN.

DREAM COME TRUE… sort of. While her Spartacus free skate (not to mention her Danzarin SP) seemed more inspired, and she “improved” her way to a silver medal… the edge calls on her triple lutzes continue to be her undoing… and might make all the difference in a close “race.” (This wasn’t close, though.)

Adelina Sotnikova dreamed of doing what teammate Liza Tutmyskeva had done the previous week: blast by the competition in her senior GP debut.

DREAM COME a little bit TRUE. Maybe she was a little disappointed with the color of her medal, or the quality of her performance, but I hope not… a bronze for her first time out is wonderful. (And while I’m at it, Kexin Zhang’s 4th place debut was very notable too.)

Kanako Murakami dreamed of continuing at the GP with the same bubbly spunk and precision that gave her two medals on the circuit last year, a bronze at the GP Final, and a top 10 finish at Worlds…

NIGHTMARE. Things just weren’t coming as easily this time around for the 17 year-old, and it showed on her distressed face in the Kiss-n-Cry. Is her 6th place finish an attack of the body-altering puberty monster, or a fluke? Time will tell…

PAIRS

Kavaguti/Smirnov dreamed of a Cup of China being the competition where their still-growing talent could shine without getting lost in the shadow of current Russian champs Volosozhar/Trankov…

DREAM COME TRUE. No quad tricks these days; just solid elements melding together well enough to put them ahead of the Zhang/Zhang veterans. And might I add…it’s such a relief to watch them and not be worrying if Kavaguti is going to have to spend half the program popping her dislocated shoulder back in place.

Evora/Ladwig dreamed of getting to a GP podium again, as they’ve only made it there once in nine previous attempts (a bronze at Cup of Russia last year).

NIGHTMARE, if only because it’s almost always the same thing that trips them up—the side-by-side jumps. Their spins are great; their lifts are sublime, and their throw jumps are increasingly consistent and solid. But if either of their SBS triple toe passes (in the SP or FS) had been clean, they could have had that bronze… less than 1.5 points separated them from actual bronze medalists Moore-Towers/ Moscovitch.

Sui/Han dreamed of… getting a break?
(OK, maybe that’s me thinking of what I’d want if I were them… two years of JGP events followed immediately by GP events? Jeez Louise. Take a nap or something.)

If this was indeed a dream of theirs (admitted or not), then DREAM COME TRUE… at least in the sense that, with their quad twist crash and 5th place finish, Sui/Han won’t have to worry this year about qualifying for both finals.

So let’s skip the NIGHTMARE possibilities, and leave it at that!

DANCE

Bobrova/Soloviev dreamed that with the help of a dark, dramatic-themed free dance, they’d be the next great Russian dance team to twizzle all over the competition and win by a crazy, 15-point margin…

DREAM COME TRUE…except that this was Cup of China 2011, not Winter Olympics 2014.

The Shibutanis dreamed they’d remain in the GP medal hunt throughout the series… kind of like last year, except it wouldn’t take anyone by surprise…

DREAM COME TRUE… IF, in fact, that’s all they dreamed about. If they had visions of rivaling Bobro/Solo, that aforementioned 15-point margin wasn’t particularly encouraging.Time will tell if the Shib Sibs are simply having to deal with raised expectations now that they’re World Bronze Medalists… or if the Glenn Miller free dance this year is hurting more than helping.

Coomes/Buckland dreamed of staying within reach of the podium after their SD put them in 3rd place…

NIGHTMARE. A tumble near the very end of the free dance did them in, losing the bronze medal to Carron/Jones by less than half a point. Ah, hang in there kids… your 4th place finish was still way better than the pair of 8th places you came up with last season at the GP…

2011 Cup of China Preview

2011-11-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Cup of China is about to get underway!
First, here’s where to watch (particularly if you live in the U.S.):

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

Friday, Nov. 4
3:30 a.m.: Short dance
5:00 a.m.: Ladies short program
6:45 a.m.: Men's short program
8:45 a.m.: Pairs short program

Saturday, Nov. 5
2:30 a.m.: Free dance
4:15 a.m.: Ladies free skate
6:15 a.m.: Men's free skate
8:30 a.m.: Pairs free skate

On Universal Sports (available over-the-air or via dish/satellite, depending on where you live):

Saturday, Nov. 5
6-8 p.m. Ladies free skate & Free Dance
10-12 midnight Men’s & Pairs free skate

NOTE: While Cup of China will NOT be covered on NBC, you CAN find last week’s Skate Canada Ladies free skate on NBC from 4-6 p.m. this Saturday. The broadcast will then repeat on Universal Sports from 6-8 p.m. this Sunday.

And now, some quick takes on this weekend’s lineup (details of which can be found here:)

CoC MEN—

Replacements from original lineup: No replacements; the TBD skater for China is Nan Song. However, Brian Joubert has withdrawn due to a back injury… and it appears Jinlin Guan (of China) has also withdrawn, leaving only 8 competitors.
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Jeremy Abbott, Artur Gachinski, Yuzuru Hanyu, Nobunari Oda, Ricky Dornbush
Dark Horse: Kevin Reynolds
Has a quad, or quads: Reynolds, Hanyu, Oda, Gachinski
Has a quad maybe: Abbott, Dornbush
Senior GP Debut: None
Favorite: Though I’m personally rooting for Abbott, the rest of the world is probably looking at either Oda or Hanyu to emerge victorious.
Other: 18 year-old reigning World Bronze Medalist Gachinski is the youngest competitor (and only teenager).

LADIES—

Replacements from original lineup: No replacements; the TBD for China is Qiuying Zhu.
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Christina Gao, Carolina Kostner, Ksenia Makarova, Kanako Murakami, Adelina Sotnikova
Dark Horse: Bingwa Geng
Who might have a 3/3 (triple/triple): Makarova, Kostner, Sotnikova, Murakami
Senior GP Debut: Zhu, Gao, Kexin Zhang
Favorite: Although Kostner was mighty good at Sk8AM, she might get overshadowed here by Sotnikova, who could make as big a splash as Tutamysheva did last week in Canada.
Other: Kostner’s teammate Valentina Marchei is the oldest competitor here (age 25).

PAIRS—

Replacements from original lineup: Two from China: Sui/Han and Yu/Jin are replacing Pang/Tong and Zhang/Wang
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Kavaguti/Smirnov, Moore-Towers/Moscovitch, Sui/Han, Zhang/Zhang
Dark Horse: Evora/Ladwig
Senior GP Debut: Steele/Schultz (of Canada)
Favorite: I’ll go with Zhang/Zhang, who looked better at Sk8AM 2 weeks ago than I’ve seen them look in a long time.
Other…: Evora/Ladwig are using Daphne et Chloe (Ravel) and Reverie (Debussy) for their free skate; please correct me if I’m wrong but I think this combo is very similar to the selection put together for Sarah Hughes 2002 Olympic free skate.

DANCE—

Replacements from original lineup: the new U.S. team of Samuelson/Gilles replaces Russia’s Monko/Khaliavin; Huang/Zheng are the TBD from China.
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Bobroba/Soloviev, Carron/Jones, Samuelson/Gilles, Shibutani/Shibutani
Dark Horse: Coomes/Buckland
Senior GP Debut: Samuelson/Gilles, Lichtman/Copely
Favorite: I’m guessing Bobrova/Soloviev, though wouldn’t be surprised if the current World Bronze Medalist Shib Sibs were favored over them
Other…: Although it’s their senior GP debut, U.S.’s Lichtman/Copely were the World Junior Bronze Medalists last year… I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the top 5.

Skate Canada 2011 in Review: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly "A-Spin"

2011-11-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a little list of my observations from last weekend's GP event:

THE GOOD…

Terry Gannon, upon introducing Canadian team Harvey/Gagnon’s FD (set to a Rolling Stones medley): “Gagnon playing Mick Jagger here; we’ll have to see if he has the moves like Jagger too.” Ah, that Terry with the pop culture drop-ins… he’s the best!

High props to Adam Rippon and Denis Ten. Sure, they only finished 4th and 5th respectively, with programs far from perfect. But Rippon needed to start somewhere with getting experience on his shiny new quad lutz, and Sk8Can was as good a place as any—even if it was something of an incomplete mess, good for him actually going for it! And Ten’s pair of fifth-place finishes (at Sk8Can and earlier at Sk8Am), reinforced with steadily improving quad toe attempts and NICE 3axels, is refreshing to see… especially knowing how he’s struggled in the past year.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the quad twist executed by rising stars and possible perennial munchkins Sui/Han… nicely done, as Scott would say! Also rather satisfying to see Duhamel/Bradford make it to the podium, especially after being reminded multiple times how she broke his nose 6 months ago.

Over in ice dance, Virtue/Moir unveiled their Funny Face free dance for the GP crowd, with predictably joyous results. (Check it out here; it's the Clip of the Day.) It’s delightful, whimsical, and all the other “-als” you might be able to come up with… and, it made me think more about the differences between V/M and Davis/White. What I come up with is a color analogy: if D/W is an eye-popping indigo blue, V/M is a dreamy sort of periwinkle. If D/W is a rich, lush burgundy, V/M is a stunning shade of rose. Which is not at all to say that V/M is some sort of paler, less interesting version of D/W… but rather something subtle & intriguing in a manner that’s as successful as D/W’s deep, bold tones. Does this idea work for any of you?

I had to laugh when Gannon mentioned, during Coach Frank Carroll’s time in the Kiss-n-Cry with Denis Ten, that Carroll is frequently seen passing the time with a book at these GP events… presumably because these “events” are so ordinary for him by now. So if anyone sees him reading Skating on Air (MY book), let me know ASAP :-)

But nothing made me laugh more than poor Ashley Wagner… not because she skated badly (quite the opposite—yea!), but watching her try and get off a greeting to her fans in the K-n-C while coach John Nicks talked to her sporadically was a hoot. Every time she looked into the camera and started to say “Hi everybody” there was Nicks coming up with something new to tell her, seemingly oblivious to her attempts. Then, when she let several seconds of silence go by before trying again… the director went to the replays of her jumps. “Oh my goodness,” she sighed… much more politely than I might have under the circumstances!

THE BAD…

Elladj Balde’s free skate. Sure, the Canadian newcomer finished last, but I was actually referring to his choice of music. Guess he didn’t get the memo that 2010, not 2011, was the year of the Michael Jackson FS medley…

Rachael Flatt’s free skate. I was going to say that her debut interpretation of Firebird—with only ONE clean triple to speak of—was sadly reminiscent of either her injury-plagued FS at Worlds earlier this year, or her dismal FS at last year’s GP Final. But in looking at her scores for each, I see that I was wrong… this one was worse than both of them. And without an injury cited (would she dare to admit an injury this season, I wonder?), I can only guess she hasn’t worked the delicate skating/Stanford balance out just yet… she did mention some sleep deprivation issues prior to the event, after all. Kidding or not, methinks she may have a point.

Kevin van der Perren. I’m not sure when the Sk8AM silver medalist came in to replace Alban Preaubert, but right about now he’s probably wishing he could hoist his 8th place finish on Preaubert too.

And finally, THE UGLY…

Peter Carruthers isn’t candy-coating it any more—especially when he’s commentating with Gannon, who lives to egg him on at times. Carruthers is not a fan of the A-spin, plain and simple. Know which one I’m talking about—where the skater spins with both his (it’s usually a male) legs straight while he’s bent over, with his tush in the air? Yeah, gotta say I’m not a fan of it either. Anyway, it played a part in at least 3 or 4 of the men’s free skates at Sk8CAN… much to Carruthers’ chagrin (and Gannon’s delight).
“There it is again!” Gannon prompted, the moment a skater assumed the position, as it were…
“I HATE IT!” Carruthers eventually came to bellow with each one.

Or maybe it was only once or twice at this event. We can only hope for more A-spin taunting at Cup of China… which comes next. Look for a preview here on Thursday.

2011 Skate Canada Preview

2011-10-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here’s what’s on the Skate Canada tap this weekend…

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

Friday, Oct. 28
2:05 p.m.: Ladies short program
3:45 p.m.: Pairs short program
7:30 p.m.: Men's short program
9:10 p.m.: Short dance

Saturday, Oct. 29
2:15 p.m.: Ladies free skate
4:15 p.m.: Pairs free skate
7:10 p.m.: Men's free skate

Sunday, Oct. 30
12:30 p.m.: Free dance

On Universal Sports (available over-the-air or via dish/satellite, depending on where you live):

Saturday, Oct. 29
4:00 p.m. Pairs free skate
7:00 p.m. Men’s free skate

Sunday, Oct. 30
12:30 p.m.: Free dance

NOTE: The Ladies free skate will not air until NBC shows it NEXT Saturday (November 5).

As I mentioned last week, I’m going a slightly different route this year with the previews… no medals predictions, but some stuff of note nonetheless:

SK8CAN MEN—

Replacements from original lineup: All original invitees are here; the TBD for Canada is Elladj Balde
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Patrick Chan, Javier Fernandez, Adam Rippon, Daisuke Takahashi, Denis Ten
Dark Horses: Tough to say; from bronze medal down it appears wide open. Maybe Ross Miner or Alban Preaubert?
Has a quad, or quads: Chan (2 of them), Takahashi, Fernandez, Ten
Has a quad maybe: Rippon (he is reportedly trying his quad lutz here), all other competitors of whom I know far too little about
Senior GP Debut: Andrei Rogozine, Balde, Alexander Majorov
Favorite: Chan. Maybe co-faves with Dice-K, but on home ice? Chan.
Other: Despite all the debuts of recent junior competitors here, the youngest of the bunch is 18 year-old Denis Ten (born June 1993).

LADIES—

Replacements from original lineup: All original invitees are here; the TBD for Canada is Adriana DeSanctis
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Rachael Flatt, Mirai Nagasu, Cynthia Phaneuf, Akiko Suzuki, Elizaveta Tutamysheva
Dark Horses: Alena Leonova, Amelie Lacoste, Ashley Wagner
Who might have a 3/3 (triple/triple): Nagasu, Tutamysheva, Sarah Hecken
Senior GP Debut: DeSanctis, Tutamysheva
Favorite: I’d say Phaneuf, except she crashed last year (1st in SP, off the podium in the end) and even said she probably shouldn’t compete at this event anymore…so IF there’s a favorite aside from the home-country variety, I think it might be Nagasu.
Other: Tutamysheva (aka “Liza”) is most likely the youngest here, not turning 15 until this December.

PAIRS—
Replacements from original lineup: None… Jessica Dube and (new partner) Sebastien Wolfe are Canada’s TBD.
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Iliusheckina/Maisuradze, Lawrence/Swiegers, Sui/Han, Volosozhar/Trankov
Dark Horse: Duhamel/Radford
Senior GP Debut: Yu/Jin, Dube/Wolfe, Volosozhar/Trankov
Favorite: Volosozhar/Trankov
Other…: Take note, US readers… no American teams in this event.

DANCE—

Replacements from original lineup: Lucie Mysliveckova and Matej Novak (CZE) are out; Madison Chock and Evan Bates take their place. Tarrah Harvey/Keith Gagnon are the Canadian TBD’s.
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Cappellini/Lanotte, Riazanova/Tkachenko,
Virtue/Moir, Weaver/Poje
Dark Horse: Chock/Bates, Riazanova/Tkachenko
Senior GP Debut: Harvey/Gagnon, Pushkash/Guerrero, Chock/Bates
Favorite: Gotta be Virtue/Moir
Other…: Pechalat/Bourzat were originally scheduled to compete here, but Bourzat has been battling bronchitis… they’ve consequentially withdrawn.

Stay tuned for results & (my version of) analysis... as soon as I can get it posted! (Even if "soon" turns out to be Monday or Tuesday as it often does!)

Don't Trust a Coach Who Uses Elton John as His Eyewear Fashion Consultant... and Other Sk8AM 2011 Observations

2011-10-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

First the Skate America 2011 medalists... then, a list of Ten Things We Learned from this first event of the GP season.

MEN:
GOLD: Michal Brezina, CZE
SILVER: Kevin van der Perren, BEL
BRONZE: Takahiko Kozuka, JPN

LADIES:
GOLD: Alissa Czisny, USA
SILVER: Carolina Kostner, ITA
BRONZE: Viktoria Helgesson, SWE

PAIRS:
GOLD: Savchenko/Szolkowy, GER
SILVER: Zhang/Zhang, CHN
BRONZE: Moore-Towers/Moscovitch, CAN

DANCE:
GOLD: Davis/White, USA
SILVER: Pechalat/Bourzat, FRA
BRONZE: Tobias/Stagniunas, LIU

1) Don’t trust a coach who has Elton John as his eyewear fashion consultant (see above)…

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’m a little mad at them right now,” Brezina confessed (on live TV, no less) to Andrea Joyce as he revealed that it was his coaching staff (which includes eyeglass style criminal Karel Fajfr) who talked him out of trying either of his two quads in an effort to seal his Sk8Am victory with a “safe” skate.

2) Do risks pay off? Welllll... depends on who you ask.

Ask Savchenko/Szolkowy (who crashed and burned on a throw triple axel attempt in the SP, but still came back to win gold)…Dornbush (who landed a quad with perhaps the best save EVER, but had a shaky rest-of-program)… Czisny, who landed a triple lutz/triple toe in the FS… that was downgraded… but still eked a win over Kostner). For reasons mentioned above, I suggest you do NOT ask Brezina this question.

3) Just because you’re a GP newbie doesn’t mean you have to finish last…

For more info, see 7th place finisher Doug Razzano, 8th place Joelle Forte, 4th place Richard Dornbush, and bronze medalists (!) Tobias/Stagniunas (of Lithuania).

4) Just because you PAY for live streaming video doesn’t mean you’re going to SEE it at critical times...

If the Universal Sports “Rugby” slide that popped up for the last half of Davis/White’s SD on IceNetwork is any indication.

5) Makarova prefers (tributes to) blondes.

Last year it was Evita… this year it’s Marilyn Monroe… will she pay homage to Madonna next year? Or is she saving that for Sochi?

6) Scott Hamilton is at his best when he’s being (almost) perfectly blunt.

When the NBC commentators took some time to speculate on the situation between Evan Lysacek and the USFSA, and Hamilton indicated he’d read Lysacek’s Twitter statement …and was even pointed to it by Lysacek himself after he called him wanting to talk about what was going on… Hamilton spoke of being confused, but at least one of his statements about the situation was crystal-clear: “If you’re training to compete, then… compete.” (Read: Even if you’re taking a pay cut.)

7) Sometimes skating to MJ just isn’t the thing to do.

Especially when you’re using “Wanna be Startin’ Somethin” as ice dancers, and your pre-stated tempo is the slow, smoky Rhumba. (Yes, Asher/Hill, I’m looking at you… though to be honest, I thought the rest of your time at the event was very well spent.)

8) Van der Perren’s silver medal… in what he’s apparently reporting to be his final season… is proof that, if nothing else, sometimes the 17th time is the charm.

(This was VDP’s 17th appearance at a GP event since 2004.)

9) Caroline Zhang & Elene Gedevanishvili’s performances raised the question “Is it better to be inconsistently good than consistently mediocre?”

Zhang skated a great SP this year but fell three times in her FS… still, her overall 6th place finish is surely considered an improvement over her 9th place at the same event. As for Gedevanishvili, who skated a miserable SP, a very respectable FS, and finished in 7th—just as she did last year--- um, hmm, I’ll get back to you on that one…

10) In the case of Zhang/Zhang, absence surely made somebody's heart grow fonder.

They found their way to a triumphant, not to mention winded, 2nd place finish after more than a year off the competitive circuit. And considering the last few times I saw them skating together—when it looked like neither one could wait to get off the ice, and maybe away from each other—it was nice to see them looking happier.

Next up in a few days… SKATE CANADA!

2011 Skate America... the Preview

2011-10-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

It’s here…..!!!!!

So let’s get right to it. The U.S. options for watching 2011 Skate America are as follows:

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

Friday, Oct. 21

10:05 p.m.: Men's short program
11:45 p.m.: Short dance

Saturday, Oct. 22
2:35 p.m.: Men's free skate (first group ONLY)
4:30 p.m.: Free dance (first group ONLY)
10:00 p.m.: Pairs short program
11:25 p.m.: Ladies short program

Sunday, Oct. 23
4:05 p.m.: Pairs free skate
5:45 p.m.: Ladies free skate

Why “first group ONLY” on the Men’s FS and the FD? Because NBC is carrying both final groups LIVE on Saturday from 3-6PM Eastern Time. (And are probably among the most disappointed that Evan Lysacek won’t be making an appearance.)

On Universal Sports (available over-the-air or via dish/satellite, depending on where you live):

Sunday, Oct. 23
1:30 p.m.: Pairs & Ladies short programs (from Saturday)
4:30 p.m.: Pairs & Ladies free skates (LIVE; looks like final group of pairs only if they start at 4:05)

As for previews, I’m going a slightly different route this year… no medals predictions (I’ve never been particularly good w/them anyway), but hopefully some worthwhile info to get you ready to watch:

Sk8AM Men…
Replacements from original lineup: Peter Liebers (GER) is out; Denis Ten (KAZ) replaces him. Evan Lysacek (USA) is out; Douglas Razzano (USA) replaces him.
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Florent Amodio, Michal Brezina, Richard Dornbush, Takahiko Kozuka, Armin Mahbanoozadeh
Dark Horses: Samuel Contesti & Kevin van der Perren
Has a quad, or quads: VDP, Brezina (2 of them), Kozuka
Has a quad maybe: Amodio, Dornbush, Razzano (though I read he’s leaving it out this weekend)
Senior GP Debut: Razzano, Dornbush
Favorite: probably Kozuka, though I think I’d make him and Brezina co-faves
Other: van der Perren is the oldest in the field at age 29… this is his fourth Sk8AM appearance (best finish was 4th several years back).

Sk8AM Ladies…
Replacements from original lineup: Laura Lepisto (FIN) is out; Viktoria Helgesson (SWE) replaces her. Joelle Forte is the USA’s TBD skater.
Top 5 guess in alphabetical order: Alissa Czisny, Joshi Helgesson, Haruka Imai, Carolina Kostner, Ksenia Makarova
Dark Horses: Elene Gedvanishvili, or either Helgesson sis
Who might have a 3/3 (triple/triple): Czisny, Kostner, Makarova
Senior GP Debut: Forte
Favorite: Probably Kostner, though again I see co-faves in Czisny and Kostner.
Other…: Forte, at age 25, is also the oldest competitor among the ladies at Sk8AM.

Sk8AM Pairs…
Replacements from original lineup: None…Denney/Coughlin is the USA’s TBD.
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Bazarova/Larionov, Denney/Coughlin, Savchekno/Szolkowy, Zhang/Zhang
Dark Horse: Moore-Towers/Moscovitch
Senior GP Debut: Denney/Coughlin and Marley/Brubaker
Favorite: Savchenko/Szolkowy
Other…: It’s the Zhangs first international competitive appearance since Worlds 2010 (where they finished 5th). They were out all of last year due to a broken finger and other injuries on Hao Zhang’s part.

Sk8AM Dance…
Replacements from original lineup: Hoffmann/Zavozin (HUN) is out, as is Monko/Khaliavin (RUS)… Paul/Islam (CAN) and Tobias/Stagniunas (LIU) replace them. Cannuscio/Lorello and Hubbell/Donohue are the USA TBD’s.
Top 4 guess in alphabetical order: Asher/Hill (wild guess), Davis/White, Hubbell/Donohue, Pechalat/Bourzat
Dark Horse: no idea
Senior GP Debut: Hubbell/Donohue, Tobias/Stagniunas
Favorite: Davis/White
Other…: Davis/White have scrapped their La Strada FD in favor of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (which they first used for an Original Dance all the way back in the 2002-3 season)

ENJOY!!!

Top Five Evan Lysacek Excuses... and One More JGP Event Review

2011-10-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

With the seventh and final JGP in the books—and the JGP Final not to happen until the senior version of the same occurs, in December—it’s high time we start taking a look at who, and possibly what, to expect when Skate America (Sk8Am) takes place this coming weekend. (Not to mention “speculate” on why Evan Lysacek recently withdrew from the event.) But first, a quick recap of JGP Estonia, known as the Taillinn Cup:

LADIES:
GOLD: Gracie Gold, USA
SILVER: Risa Shoji, JPN
BRONZE: Samantha Cesario, USA

In case you’re wondering (as I was) who Gracie Gold is, and why haven’t you heard about her before now… she was the Novice Champion at U.S. Nationals back in 2010, but only finished 6th at sectionals in the junior division last year (meaning she didn’t qualify to compete at Nationals). But to watch her at this, her debut JGP event, with a triple lutz/triple toe among her arsenal of elements, you’d have thought she was a much more seasoned competitor. She finished well ahead of Shoji, who, aside from a completely blown 3lutz in the FS, was very soft and exquisite as she was when she competed a few weeks ago. And other than a completely blown 3Loop in her FS, Cesario turned in another good performance with her Black Swan/Swan Lake interpretation… still, I can’t help but want to compare it to Ashley Wagner’s take on the same music (as we should see at Skate Canada in a couple of weeks).

MEN:
GOLD: Joshua Farris, USA
SILVER: Maxim Kovtun, RUS
BRONZE: Shoma Uno, JPN

Despite a fall on his second 3ax and a bad fallout on a 3lutz, Farris won by nearly 20 points… and now qualifies for the JGP Final in December. (We’ll cover the full list of finalists soon.) Kovtun and his Austin Powers FS proved he’s got some flair, but to me “It’s not soup yet,” as they say. USA’s Shotaro Omori finished back in 5th.

PAIRS:
GOLD: Bobak/Beharry, CAN
SILVER: Simpson/Blackmer, USA
BRONZE: Calalang/Sidhu, USA

Bobak/Beharry free-skated to Spartacus; I was surprised to see no lifts on either of the obvious places in the music… not sure if I like that or not. It was a nice skate, though not all her throws were clean. Simpson/Blackmer had a little trouble on their SBS jumps, but a strong performance with Titanic. Calalang/Sidhu were a little sloppy, but had nice energy and ambition.

DANCE:
GOLD: Yanovskaia/Mozgov, RUS
SILVER: Shtork/Rand, EST
BRONZE: Kosigina/Moroshkin, RUS

All the FD medal performances here were fine, though I was surprised to see the dreaded “twizzle trouble” occur with both Shtork/Rand and Kosigina/Moroshkin. USA’s Hawayek/Bramante had fine twizzles, but must’ve lacked in many other places since they were only able to pull out an 8th place finish.

On to Sk8Am!!

So you might have read this week that Kim Yu-Na has announced plans to sit out he entire season, including 2012 Worlds. OK, that doesn’t really have any bearing on Sk8Am since she was never scheduled to compete there in the first place…

But before that you probably read that Kim’s partner in 2010 Olympic gold medal-ry, Evan Lysacek, is opting out of the GP Series (if not yet the entire season). His season was supposed to start with Sk8Am… recent Finlandia Trophy silver medalist Doug Razzano has now been chosen to take his place.

Anyway, you may have also read, via Phil Hersh, that the reasons for Lysacek’s decision center around money. It may well be true... but as I’m prone to do, I let my mind wander as to the “real” reasons… and came up with the following with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek as always:

Top 5 Excuses for Evan Lysacek’s Opt Out of the 2011 GP Series…

5) Too depressed about the NBA Lockout to find the will to compete

4) Too busy making protest signs for Occupy Los Angeles

3) Too busy convincing those at Occupy Los Angeles that he “really is the 99%” based on the argument that, frankly, even OGM’s don’t get paid what they used to…

2) …But then someone at Occupy Los Angeles points the crowd to this clip showcasing his “kickin’ bachelor pad,” and he’s back to square one

1) Afraid to reveal whether or not he still looks like he did in last year’s ESPN ”Body” issue

Skate America starts late this Friday in Ontario, California, so watch this space for a preview of the senior season kickoff!

Hicks Out for Skating's Season... Which is About to Launch on NBC in a Week!

2011-10-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

I’ll be out of town for the next couple of days, but in the meantime I’ve got something for you that I haven’t had in a while: skating news that has little to do with JGP results!

EXCEPT FOR THIS PART: Courtney Hicks, last year’s U.S. junior ladies’ champ who won gold early in the JGP season but was forced to withdraw from last week’s event, has now been sidelined for the entire season. Apparently a piece of bone detached from her right tibia when she launched into her triple flip at the JGP Milan free skate last week… or, something could have started going awry when she took those two bad falls in the SP in Milan, as I reported a few days ago. In any case, this article from Philip Hersh includes quotes from John Nicks (Hicks’ coach) which confirm that she has already had surgery, is back in the States, and is expected to be off the ice for at least 4 months (read: in time to miss everything important, including U.S. Nationals). Godspeed to Hicks; at age 15 she seemingly has plenty of time to recover and reassert herself, but it obviously has to be a traumatic and frustrating time for her.

TV SCHEDULING: This might be redundant with a post I made a couple months back, but since the press release came out last week I’ll go ahead and give you this link to the USFS announcement of the “finalized” schedule for broadcasting ISU GP events on NBC, as well as the extended coverage offered on Universal Sports. I think the coverage is similar to last year, and like last year, one event appears to be getting “hosed” (aka no coverage provided) from the NBC side of things… this year the unlucky event is Cup of China. I tend to think this is because NBC has one weekend in early November that is already booked solid with other sports. (Maybe this year I’ll pay attention and try to figure out what those other sports are.) The link/press release also mentions the broadcast team for the various events to be similar to last year; it includes Terry Gannon, Andrea Joyce, Scott Hamilton (I’m guessing Skate America and MAYBE the GP Final only), Tanith Belbin, Peter Carruthers, Michael Weiss, and Tracy Wilson. First up is Skate America, airing live a week from this Saturday…

AND FINALLY, if you have a minute or two to give for the sake of reading an article that can renew your love for figure skating (or pump it up if you’re already in a happy relationship with it) do me a favor and read Ryan Jahnke’s new piece. You won’t be disappointed!

Three More U.S. Medals at JGP Milan; Finlandia Showcases Ice Dance

2011-10-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, the name at the top of the Men’s JGP list is the same as last week… but this time, the location was Milan:

MEN
GOLD: Han Yan, CHN
SILVER: Jason Brown, USA
BRONZE: June-Hyoung Lee, KOR

Han Yan—remember that name; he may well become China’s biggest name in singles skating since the Lu Chen days. Save for one fall near the end of his free skate, Brown didn’t any trouble… it’s simply impossible for him to compete with Yan when Brown still skates without a 3axel. Korea’s Lee had a few sloppy moments in his Mozart free skate, but seems fairly promising… USA’s Jay Yostanto wound up 5th.

LADIES

GOLD: Julia Lipnitskaia, RUS
SILVER: Anna Shershak, RUS
BRONZE: Hannah Miller, USA

Lipnitskaia, who I have previously described as “Gumby-diculous” with regards to her flexibility, remained as limber as ever in claiming her second gold of the series. Miller, skating to “Masquerade Waltz,” didn’t have the best of free skates but hung in for a bronze nonetheless. Her teammate, Courtney Hicks (who won gold a few weeks ago) took two hard falls in the SP, then injured her leg on the opening jump sequence of her FS and withdrew from the event.

DANCE

GOLD: Stepanova/Bukin, RUS
SILVER: Zenkova/Sinitsin, RUS
BRONZE: Bonocorsi/Mager, USA

Stepanova/Bukin won a second gold for the season with their “Live & Let Die” FD; Bonacorsi/Mager looked strong & elegant using what I like to call a “Popera” (classically sung modern/popular music) piece.

FINLANDIA TROPHY

As with the Nepala Memorial last week, only a few “known” skaters were in attendance—in this case, they were mostly ice dancers giving us a peek at their new programs. Reigning OGMs Virtue/Moir turned up, and easily won the event with an FD that feels fresh and inspired at first glance, even though the music (which includes Fred Astaire’s “Funny Face”) is quite retro. Current world bronze medalists The Shibutanis took silver, and appeared to be in fine form… but I have to admit that their “new” program (which includes “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo”) feels a lot like a sequel to last year’s FD… making me wish they’d gone in a different direction. On the other hand, the new team of Madison Chock/Evan Bates intrigued me right away with a Chopin FD that saunters through a few different tempos… good stuff, even though I was unsure how I’d feel about seeing Evan without Emily (Samuelson). Another notable finish was Douglas Razzano—10th at U.S.Nationals last January—who won the silver medal here in men's singles behind Japan’s Takahito Mura, but ahead of Sweden’s Adrian Schultheiss…

Several other senior programs are making pre-GP appearances in these final weeks before Skate America; I hope to recap them plus other “briefs” in skating news next time…

Another Gold, Another Silver For USA in the Junior Grand Prix

2011-10-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL NOTE: If you read this link from Variety Magazine you'll learn a little bit of a man named Joe Aceti, who passed away on October 5 at age 76. You may not be familiar with the name, but if you're a skating fan you've probably seen his work through the years. He was one of my interview sources for Skating on Air, so I had the privilege of spending a couple hours on the phone with him 2 years ago. I'll share more about him in a future post.

**
The Junior GP’ers of the skating world are hitting the homestretch of their 7-week tour rather quickly, with Skate America starting up just 6 days after JGP ends (save for the JGP Final, which of course doesn’t happen until December). Last week took them to Innsbruck; here are the highlights as I saw them…

MEN

GOLD: Han Yan, CHN
SILVER: Gordei Gorshkov, RUS
BRONZE: Keiji Tanaka, JPN

Americans Timothy Dolensky (finishing 4th)and Philip Warren (6th) were no match for Yan, Gorshkov, and Tanaka—the latter of which was free skating to the Untouchables soundtrack, if I’m not mistaken.

LADIES

GOLD: Vanessa Lam, USA
SILVER: Zijun Li, CHN
BRONZE: Polina Agafonova, RUS

Lam pulled up from a 4th place SP to eke out a win over Li when Agafonova (yes, one of the THREE “Polinas”) could only free skate well enough to put her in the bronze medal range. I liked Li’s pacing better—Lam seems to rush through a lot of her choreography, though ironically she finished several seconds ahead of her music—but I suspect Lam had a few more difficult elements, since as I recall both ladies skated clean. American Katarina Kulgeyko did well in the FS as well, pulling her up to a 5th place finish.

PAIRS

GOLD: Sui/Han, CHN
SILVER: Yu/Jin, CHN
BRONZE: Petaikina/Kurduykov, RUS

Sui/Han are senior-level jumpers and junior-level everything else, so especially in a JGP event, the jumping takes ‘em far. Yu/Jin chose Requiem for a Dream (ugh) but otherwise seem like very promising skaters. Further down in the standings were Duarte/Grafton (in 6th), Denney/Frazier (in 7th), and Oltmanns/Zantillan (in 11th), all from the USA.

DANCE

GOLD: Sinitsina/Zhiganshin, RUS
SILVER: Aldridge/Eaton, USA
BRONZE: Nosulia/Kholoniuk, UKR

If these medalists’ names sound familiar to you, it’s because this the second time to the podium for some/all of them: Sinitsina/Zhiganshin and their Davis/White-esque Phantom of the Opera free dance won gold in Gdansk, Irish step-dancing Aldridge/Eaton won bronze won bronze in Latvia, and Nosulia/Kholoniuk won gold at that same event.

As for the Ondrej Nepela Memorial, held in Bratislava at the same time as JGP Austria, the quality of skating ranged widely from discipline to discipline. For the men, Japan’s Daisuke Murakami (aka “the other Dice-K”) edged out veteran Kevin Van der Perren for the win, with Samuel Contesti coming from a 6th place SP to a 1st place FS and overall bronze (and good news… Contesti’s new FS bears closer resemblance to the kind of program he had in 2009 (his “breakout year”) than the panpipe-a-licious routine he’s used ever since. Jonathan Cassar (of the U.S.) finished 4th; Grant Hochstein (also of the U.S) unfortunately blew a 2nd place finish in the SP with a 7th-place FS; he finished in 5th.

In pairs, Volosozhar/Trankov were the main attraction for sure, racking up a win with nearly 27 points over silver medalists Berton/Hotarek… who were just ahead of Iliusheckina/Maisuradze, with a catchy FS to A Chorus Line this season… and way back in 4th were Castelli/Shnapir, the Americans who continue to try for a throw 3axel in competition (but haven’t succeeded yet to my knowledge… it’s very close though!)

The other two disciplines attracted lesser-knowns only; Zhiganshina/Gazsi (GER) proved to be the best in ice dance, while France’s Mae Berenice Meite won gold for the ladies. The best known lady, Britain’s Jenna McCorkell, finished 5th… U.S. ice dancers Cannuscio/McManus came in 5th as well.

And in case you’re wondering who the heck Ondrej Nepela is, here’s his 1971 World Championship-winning free skate to help you with that.

Up this week… JGP Milan and Finlandia Trophy!

The Better-Late-Than-Never Club Presents... Last Week's JGP and Nebelhorn Numbers and Notes

2011-09-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yikes—all these “pre-season” events are getting tough to keep up with! Sorry for the delays, but I’m trying to catch as many medal and/or U.S. performances as I can… this past week, with two events in play, that added up to over two dozen. In any case, I’m trying to get back to at least 2 posts a week ASAP, especially since I’ll want to be up to around 4 a week by the time the Senior GP starts.

Speaking of Grand Prix events, here are some results and notes from last week’s junior entry in Brasov, Romania (Nebelhorn Trophy follows further down):

MEN
GOLD- Maxim Kovtun, RUS
SILVER- Ryuju Hino, JPN
BRONZE- Nam Nguyen, CAN

Kovtun gets Russia its first men’s gold medal of the JGP, while Hino (who won in Latvia a few weeks ago) settled for silver here. Nguyen, the reigning Canadian Junior champ, is all of 13 years old, and all of 4’11” to boot… get ready, he might be around for a good long time. For the U.S., Shotaro Omori came in 4th, while Harrison Choate finished 6th.

LADIES
GOLD- Polina Shelepen, RUS
SILVER- Polina Korobeynikova, RUS
BRONZE- Hae-Jin Kim, KOR

So apparently the name “Polina” became as popular in Russia in the mid-90s as “Madison” and “Hannah” have become in the U.S. these days. Shelepen you may have seen before; she was the JGP Final silver medalist last year and now has two gold medals from this season. Korobeynikova is the third “Polina” to medal on the JGP circuit this season; unfortunately I’ll remember her for using Otonal for her FS more than anything else. (Sorry; not a fan of Otonal.) Ashley Cain, who came in 6th for the U.S. in Latvia, managed 4th place here, while international newcomer McKinzie Daniels (who I had the pleasure of seeing perform live way back in 2006) finished 10th.

DANCE
GOLD- Stepanova/Bukin, RUS
SILVER- Galyeta/Shumski, UKR
BRONZE- Bent/MacKeen, CAN

Stepanova/Bukin, frankly, had me at the opening notes of their FD (a string version of Paul McCartney & Wings’ “Live and Let Die,” which I’ve long thought to be one of the best pop songs a skater could use). It’s worth a mention too that Canada’s Bent/MacKeen dance to music from South Pacific, which I thought to be a unique (and good) choice. In 4th place was Hawayek/Bramante of the U.S.; didn’t recognize their music but they had interesting and creative lifts, good speed on their dance spin, and an overall nice “dance quality” (must use the quotes since I’m no expert).

Next up for the JGP: Innsbruck! In fact, it’s already underway…Vanessa Lam is in 4th after the SP, and one of the Polinas is in 1st. There, something timely for once!

As for the Nebelhorn Trophy…

Men

GOLD- Yuzuru Hanyu, JPN
SILVER- Michal Brezina, CZE
BRONZE- Stephen Carriere, USA

Hanyu, who I still think of as the Johnny Weir of Japan, got the victory solidly over Brezina (unrecognizable with brown hair and no argyle vest, now that he’s finally retired the American in Paris program), and a surprisingly strong Carriere (particularly regarding a very nice "La Vie en Rose/Mack The Knife" SP). Max Aaron, representing the U.S. and attempting a quad salchow in his FS, finished 5th.

Ladies

GOLD- Mirai Nagasu, USA
SILVER- Elene Gedevanishvili, GEO
BRONZE- Joshi Helgesson, SWE

Nagasu’s using Spartacus for the FS—good news is that although she blew her first jumping pass (3Lo/2Lo), she stood up the rest of the performance and retained a substantial lead after dominating the SP. Bad news is that she’s got a ways to go before she really seems to connect w/the music. (Her poker face doesn’t help.)

Gedevanishvili is back to being a brunette, and she’s back to landing triple lutzes for the first time in a long while. Her Phantom of the Opera program brought her silver. Joshi Helgesson outskated her sister Viktoria with a Romeo & Juliet-themed free skate. Joelle Forte of the U.S. finished 7th.

Pairs

GOLD- Volosozhar/Trankov, RUS
SILVER- Bazarova/Larionov, RUS
BRONZE- Denney/Coughlin, USA

Volosozhar/Trankov won this easily and looked good doing it, for the most part (though they did have a rare miscue on a lift in their Swan Lake FS). Bazarova/Larionov snatched second away from the new team of Denney/Coughlin; a big splat from Denney on a throw triple loop surely didn’t help much. Vise/Baldwin of the U.S. finished 7th.

Dance

GOLD- Hubbell/Donohue, USA
SILVER- Zhiganshina/Gazsi, GER
BRONZE- Ralph/Hill, CAN

My guess is that Madison Hubbell couldn’t have effectively skated to Joe Cocker growling “I’ve Put a Spell on You” if her brother was still her dance partner… which might be reason enough to applaud her gold medal here with new partner Zach Donohue. Among those coming in behind them were Ralph/Hill (who had a VERY nice set of partially mirrored twizzles in the opening seconds of their FD), and a James Bond-themed Olson/Cowan of the U.S., who finished 6th.

The Ondrej Nepala Memorial is up next for the senior lot!

Another Week on the JGP Circuit, Another Round of U.S. Gold Medals

2011-09-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

Gdansk brought more hardware to the U.S. juniors… 2 gold and 1 bronze, to be precise. Here’s a little of how it shook out:

MEN
GOLD: Joshua Farris, USA
SILVER: Artur Dmitriev (Jr.), RUS
BRONZE: Ryuichi Kihara, JPN

If your last image of Farris is of a young man struggling to muscle through his fall-plagued Nationals free skate—only to discover later on that he’d been skating with a fractured ankle—get ready for a much better picture of the 16 year-old. His free skate was far from perfect, and in fact he lost that portion to 19 year-old Artur Dmitriev Jr. (who skated clean but whose style is a little too herky-jerky for my taste). But Farris’ SP still gave him a 5 point edge when all was said and done. 17 year-old David Wang (also from the U.S.) finished a strong 5th, showing some nice style and polish if lacking some of the jump content of the medalists.

LADIES
GOLD:Julia Lipnitskaia, RUS
SILVER: Satoko Miyahara, JPN
BRONZE: Samantha Cesario, USA

After watching the then 17 year-old Cesario’s impressive Sectionals performances last year, I was disappointed to learn that a back injury would keep her out of Nationals. But she’s back—in the JGP, anyway—and brought back a bronze medal this time with performances that included a Black Swan free skate—one of many we’ll see this year, I suspect. She was bested by a couple of teens just barely old enough for the JGP circuit—Miyahara, 13, who’s clearly hoping to get an early leg up on the deep pool of homeland talent, and Lipnitskaia, also 13, who may already have the upper hand with her Gumby-diculous flexibility and solid jumping technique. 15 year-old Lauren Dinh of the U.S. managed a 6th place finish.

PAIRS
GOLD: Simpson/Blackmer, USA
SILVER: Bobak/Beharry, CAN
BRONZE: Tudvaseva/Lisiev, RUS

To be fair, Simpson/Blackmer (or at least Simpson) had something of an unfair advantage in that she competed on the senior GP last season with former partner Nathan Miller… but rules are rules, and here they are in juniors. I look forward to their free skate to the Titanic soundtrack in the future. Also there for the U.S. were Calalang/Sidhu (finishing 4th), and Aaron/Settlage (finishing 5th).

DANCE
GOLD: Sinitsina/Zhiganshin, RUS
SILVER: Galyeta/Shumski, UKR
BRONZE: Yanovskaia/Mozgov, RUS

As you can see, Eastern Europe was well represented in ice dance, led by Sinitsina/Zhiganshin… who brought back some Davis/White cuts from their 2010 Phantom of the Opera free dance. (They hit some really nice positions on their lifts, but as with most of the juniors they need more extension and duration on their moves.) Keep an eye on the Canadian team of Bruser/Lum, who skated only the 8th best SD but presented the 2nd best FD (leaping up to sixth place in the process). Parsons/Parsons and Mancini/Brooks, both of the U.S., finished 9th and 10th respectively.

An even fuller plate awaits over the next few days for skating fans, as both Nebelhorn Trophy and JGP Romania will take place over the next several days! Stay tuned… we’re one month away from Skate America now and the pace keeps on a-quickening…

Brisbane Comes Up Golden (and Silver, and Bronze) For U.S. Juniors

2011-09-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

If you’re a U.S. elite figure skater in search of a “favorite” place to compete… might I suggest Australia?

It worked out pretty well for this weekend’s batch of American competitors… that’s all I’m sayin’.

Well, actually I’ll say a little more. But not without including some of the results:

MEN

GOLD: Jason Brown, USA

SILVER: Keiji Tanaka, JPN

BRONZE: Liam Firus, CAN

16 year-old Chicagoland native Brown—aka The Guy With The Ponytail—returns to the JGP this season while competing at the senior level domestically, and won handily… despite a couple of falters (but no falls) in his free skate, and without a triple axel to his name. I continue to be impressed as Brown (who finished a solid 9th at 2011 Nats) skates beyond his years in every way possible… except, maybe, for that triple axel he still seeks to possess. Tanaka, also 16, has one—had room for two in his program; the fact that he popped the second one might have given Brown the upper hand. Canada’s Firus might be one to watch as well…no triple axel, but there was something about his presence on the ice that echoed—dare I say it??—a little Toller Cranston to me. 18 year-old Philip Warren of the US finished in 6th place.

LADIES

GOLD: Courtney Hicks, USA

SILVER: Risa Shoji, JPN

BRONZE: Vanessa Lam, USA

Not one but TWO U.S. medalists in this case, as up-and-coming powerhouse athlete Hicks, age 15, captured gold despite two falls in the free skate (overnight/SP leader Kim Hae-Jin inadvertently helped Hicks’ cause by falling FOUR times, taking her out of the medals completely). Lam, a strong 7th at Senior Nationals last January, held down bronze despite a fall of her own on a triple lutz—the kind of nasty fall where their face smacks the ice and you can feel your own chin split open in sympathy (sorry if that’s too graphic). But I must admit, 15 year-old Shoji almost stole the show for me with fine jumps (no falls!) and an impressive amount of elegance for such a young skater. Am I crazy to say I saw pale shades of Chen Lu in that performance? (You can see her free skate here.)

DANCE

GOLD: Orford/Williams, CAN

SILVER: Bonacorsi/Mager, USA

BRONZE: Zenkova/Sinitsin, RUS

Orford/Williams were pretty captivating with their Gone with the Wind free dance—it seemed a little rushed, but I think the goods are there for the developing. Heritage/Fast (of the U.S.) finished 5th.

Next on the JGP Schedule: Poland!

From Latvia with Love: JGP Results (and a little commentary) From Week 1

2011-09-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

One down already?

In the case of the ISU Junior Grand Prix… yes! Here’s a summary of the best and/or U.S. finishes in JGP Latvia:

MEN
GOLD: Ryuju Hino, JPN
SILVER: He Zhang, CHN
BRONZE: Timothy Dolensky, USA

Hino (age 15) won on the strength of his jumps (including a triple axel and a triple axel/triple toe), but the one who got more of my attention was Zhang, also 15… no triple axel yet, but a lot of strength and flow and very watchable! Similar words can be said for Dolensky— might be due to his age (he’s 19), but in a season where many of the U.S. junior men are hoping to break out the way Ricky Dornbush did last year, I say his performance here couldn’t have hurt that effort. U.S.’s Emmanuel Savary finished further back, in 14th.

LADIES
GOLD: Polina Shelepen, RUS
SILVER: Zijun Li, CHN
BRONZE: Polina Agofonova, RUS

In similar fashion, the gold here went to she with the triple/triples—no triple axels, but in this case the other combos served 16 year-old Shelepen well. The other Polina (age 15) had a spottier outing in the FS but possesses some lovely spins, including one that emulates (if not duplicates?) Caroline Zhang’s “pearl” spin. Yasmin Siraj (age 15) and Ashley Cain (age 16), both of the U.S., finished 5th and 6th, respectively.

PAIRS
GOLD: Sui/Han, CHN
SILVER: Yu/Jin, CHN
BRONZE: Purdy/Marinaro, CAN

Although Sui/Han turned a lot of heads last year (and surely will again this year) as the Chinese Team of the Future, this wasn’t their best effort… several mistakes in the free skate and yet they still won handily. Which, sadly, doesn’t speak all that well for the rest of the competitors… including Oltmanns/Santillan, Denney/Frazier, and Duarte/Grafton, all of the U.S. (finishing 7th, 8th, and 9th respectively).

DANCE
GOLD: Nosulia/Kholoniuk, UKR
SILVER: Kosigina/Moroshkin, RUS
BRONZE: Aldridge/Eaton, USA

I must point out that Nosulia/Kholoniuk had me at “Bust Your Windows,” a great R&B song by Jazmine Sullivan (and also found on one of the Glee soundtracks) that they used for their short dance. And Aldridge/Eaton pulled up to medal contention with a free dance that brought back the Riverdance trend of about 10-12 years ago… one of two U.S. medals earned this time out. Gamelin/Gamelin, also of the US, came in 17th (!) in the SD and 7th (!!) in the FD to finish out in 9th overall.

How did I see all this, you might ask? Why, via the brand-new ISU channel on YouTube. Say what?? Yes, it’s true. We’ll talk about that a little more next time.

Coming Very Soon: JGP in Latvia, and "Battle of the Blades" (with a twist)

2011-08-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

The end of August I looked forward to in my younger days for two reasons: 1) School was starting/about to start, and 2) The 30th is my birthday. Nowadays, the school significance is passed down to my kids… and while my birthday still happens at the same time, it’s not quite the thrill it used to be… if you know what I mean :-)

But by way of my deeper immersion into this sport (if writing the blog and writing Skating on Air count), I now pay more attention to the span between late August and mid October—elite figure skating’s pre-season, if you will. Which provides something new to look forward to! (Plus, the homework’s a lot better.)

By this time a month from now, five international skating events—four junior, one senior—will have taken place:

JGP Volvo Cup (Riga, Latvia)… August 31-September 4

JGP Brisbane (Brisbane, Australia)… September 7- 11

JGP Baltic Cup (Gdansk, Poland)… September 14-18

Nebelhorn Trophy (Germany)… September 21-24

JGP Brasov Cup (Brasov, Roumania?)… September 21-25

And as you see, JGP Volvo Cup gets started later this week… so the time to get focused is almost upon us already! I’ll post at least one follow-up on this one by this time next week.

You know what else it’s almost time for? That’s correct… season three of the CBC hit series Battle of the Blades. September 18, to be precise! So glad that Canada continues to succeed where the U.S. seems destined to fail.

Speaking of which, did you hear that Tanith Belbin will be in this year’s lineup of pros? Maybe her boot camp at Skating with the Stars wasn’t all for naught. (She’ll probably prefer skating to co-hosting, anyway.) Other new pros include Kim Navarro (ice dancer formerly paired w/Brent Bommentre), Elena Berezhnaya (2002 OGM w/pairs partner Anton Sikharulidze), Marcy Hinzmann-Harris (2006 Olympian pairs skater, formerly paired w/Aaron Parchem), and… David Pelletier? Yup, he’s paired with another Olympic Gold Medalist… in women’s hockey. Tessa Bonhomme is her name. Much more about the cast can be found at the CBC’s official website for it.

Canadian readers, are you ready for another season of BATTLES?

Are Samuelson/Gilles the Final Do-Si-Do in the Pairs & Dance Off-Season Shuffle?

2011-08-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Just when I was starting to wonder if Emily Samuelson would be the odd woman out of all the North American pairs and dance mumbo jumbo of the past few months… out comes the news that she’ll be pairing with Todd Gilles. Although they do not yet have a coach or even a training base, much less a program or two, they are hoping to qualify for U.S. Nationals by way of a Sectionals championship this fall.

SO! Here’s the scorecard I’ve racked up from the past 6 months as it appears at this moment (subject to further change, of course):

1) Pairs team Denney/Barrett (of U.S.) split
2) Pairs team Dube/Davison (of Canada) split
3) Dube teams up with Sebastien Wolfe (still of Canada)
4) Pairs team Yankowskas/Coughlin (of U.S.) split
5) Dance team Piper Gilles/Zach Donahue (of U.S.) split
6) Dance team Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell (of U.S.) split
7) Coughlin teams up with Caydee Denney (still of U.S.)
8) Dance team Crone/Poirier (of Canada) split
9) Dance team Chock/Zuerlein (of U.S.).split
10) Dance team Samuelson/Bates (of U.S) split
11) Chock/Bates team up (still of U.S.)
12) Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier team up (Gilles now representing Canada)
13) Madison Hubbell/Zach Donahue team up (still of U.S.)
14) Emily Samuelson/Todd Gilles team up (still of U.S.)

Who’s left stranded at this point?

Jeremy Barrett—no, seems to be retired
Bryce Davison—no, seems to be focused on coaching for now.
Caitlin Yankowskas
Keiffer Hubbell
Vanessa Crone
Greg Zuerlein—no, seems to be retired/focusing on school
Jane Summersett (former partner of Todd Gilles)—no, seems to be retired

Do we see Crone and Hubbell twizzling in the near future?

What will happen with Yankowskas? Should we make a list of partners she hasn’t considered yet?

Which of these new pairings—especially the dance teams—will rise to the top?

Aren’t you ready to see the Grand Prix start?

Well, we’re almost there… kind of. Junior GP gets underway in about a week. Will you be following anyone in particular? Let me know how closely you want me to stay on top of the JGP results as they unfold over the next couple of months.

More Noteworthies: Music Choices from the World Championship's Top 10

2011-08-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

Wouldn’t it be interesting if all the athletes who finished 6th through 10th at Worlds had music selections the following season that reflected either a desire to make a first-time move into next year’s Top 5 (as the likes of Florent Amodio and Ksenia Makarova surely possess), or a desire to rebound from a disappointing finish (Nobunari Oda, Brian Joubert, Mao Asada… I’m looking at you three)?

Wouldn’t it, indeed! But with only half of these skaters’ music announced to the world at this time, it’s tough getting a good cross-representation of it all. Here are a few of the more eye-catching/ear-catching offerings of which I’ve taken note thus far:

For the MEN-- Richard Dornbush’s SP to “16 Tons” (a late-1950s hit for “Tennessee” Ernie Ford) and an FS that includes the William Tell Overture.

Because… well, hearing “16 Tons” at a major skating event is kind of like when the band R.E.M. did a cover version of Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”…it’s a surprising choice at a most unexpected time. I haven’t seen enough of Dornbush to get a real sense of his personality, but without even seeing the program I feel like I know him better now, and that I like what I “know.” As for his use of Rossini’s WTO—also known in my mom’s day as the Lone Ranger Theme Song—how can anyone NOT love that choice?

For the LADIES—Ksenia Makarova’s FS to the OST of Some Like it Hot.

Because… much as last year’s program encouraged Makarova to channel her inner Broadway diva by way of Evita, this one is destined to bring out the Hollywood diva in her by way of Some Like it Hot’s co-star, Marilyn Monroe. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the film, and don’t remember much about its music. But this sounds like it could be a lot of fun for Makarova.

For the PAIRS—Denney/Coughlin’s FS to Nessum Dorma.

Because while yes, it IS a warhorse…they are apparently changing it up by using some of guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck’s recent version (as evidenced in the second half of this Clip of the Day ). I’ll take whatever variations I can get… and I happen to think these two are powerful enough skaters to pull it off.

For DANCE-- Ilinykh/ Katsalapov’s FD to Ave Maria.

Because, as you probably know, there’s more than one way to compose a piece called Ave Maria… and this one (heard here) is by Russian composer Vladimir Vavilov. Does anyone know if it’s been used recently by anyone else?

One other music choice of note: get ready for a couple of doses of a “hip-hop” Carmina Burana this season. One is the SP of Finland’s Kiira Korpi; the other is the SP of Czech Republic’s Tomas Verner. Will either of them come close to the excitement level that was generated by Daisuke Takahashi’s hip-hop Swan Lake SP a few years ago? And which one do you look most forward to seeing? Both are scheduled to debut their SPs at NHK Trophy this fall.

Noteworthy Music Choices for the Top Figure Skaters in 2011-12

2011-08-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

If, in springtime, a young person’s fancies turn to love (as the saying goes)… I think it’s safe to say that come late summer, a skating fan’s fancies turn to wondering what music their favorite athletes will be competing with come 2011-2012.

Thanks to the Internet, the ability to find this out in advance is easier than ever… IF the skater in question is willing to reveal their choice, that is. (One thought back to last summer’s alleged misstep in the aftermath of the Kim/Orser dissolution reminds us that some prefer to keep their choices to themselves as long as possible.)

You could scan the pages of posts covering this subject at FS Universe…

Or the similar scenario over at Golden Skate…

But if you’ve only got a minute or two to absorb the highlights here and there, read on… I can get you started!

What I did was round up the top 5 Worlds finishers from each discipline, and see what I could find out about their respective short/long picks. Admittedly I found less than 50% in the way of “official” announcements; of 40 possible programs, I only tracked down 18. And there could be plenty of unofficial announcements via the message boards that I haven’t included, so feel free to leave a comment about any notable omissions…

For these are HIGHLIGHTS that I’ve chosen to mention for various reasons listed below!

For the MEN—Takahiko Kozuka’s SP to Joe Henderson’s tenor sax-fueled "Inner Urge"…

… because anything would be an improvement over last season’s Soul Medley misstep. I know it served him just fine in that his stock just keeps rising… but (I’ll say it one more time, then shut up) it sounded like it came off a compilation CD of Funky Music for You to Skate to that couldn’t be bothered to pay for the rights to the originals. Anyway, "Inner Urge" is a jazz piece first released in 1964—and, at least to me, an exciting and original choice for a short program Considering that a previous Taka SP choice was Jimi Hendrix… I’m eager to see what gets cooked up here.

For the LADIES-- Alissa Czisny’s FS to Sibelius’ Valse Triste…

… because, to me, it’s a fine follow-up to last season’s George Winston masterpiece. When I heard she would in fact continue to compete in 2011-12, I was a little nervous wondering what she’d use that could suit her any better—the Winston pieces used created such a lovely feeling of calm that she must have needed in the wake of her 2009-10 season. But she stays wisely grounded in relatively gentle classics that haven’t (yet) come close to warhorse territory for figure skating. (Valse Triste translates to “Sad Waltz,” and if you’d like to hear some or all of it, you can do so here. )

For PAIRS—Volosohzar/Trankov’s FS to Black Swan…

… because—and I know you didn’t hear it here first, but I’m just sayin’—Black Swan is going to be a popular choice this year, and Volo/Trank’s interpretation might turn out to be one of my favorites. Ashley Wagner chose it early on; meanwhile, Alena Leonova went on record early on to say she would NOT use it. By the way, it’s worth noting that using Black Swan is quite different from using Swan Lake, as the Black Swan soundtrack credits Tchaikovsky, composer Clint Mansell (the guy responsible for the now-infamous-in-skating score to Requiem for a Dream), and electronica duo The Chemical Brothers.

For DANCE—Davis/White’s SD (which includes recent Jennifer Lopez hit “On the Floor”)…

… just because I like that song, OK?? ;-)
I know they don’t get to choose the SD style year in-year out, but it seems like it’s been a while since D/W got to cut loose a little in competition, say, the way Virtue/Moir did with their free dance last year (which, incidentally, has now been shortened to become their SD music for 2011-12). So I look forward to seeing what the reigning world champs deliver… besides, I don’t think we’ve heard any J-Lo in competition since Belbin/Agosto brought out “Let’s Get Loud” in 2005-6 (as this Olympic Clip of the Day will remind you).

And as an honorable (or dishonorable?) mention, I should also give you…

A) the RERUN ALERT of Top 5-ers programs used last season that will get an extension into this one… including Patrick Chan’s "Take Five" SP, Michal Brezina’s Japanese Kodo Drums SP, and the aforementioned SD of Virtue/Moir…

B) and the WARHORSE ALERT, which is (whew) pretty sparse right now, at least as for as Top 5-ers go… only one to note is that Russia’s Bazarova/Larionov are doing their FS to Tosca. But don’t worry; it’s early yet!

Got a particular group of skaters on which you’d like some specific program info? American ladies? European men? Ice dancers with the 5 lowest GP scores last year? I’m game… just leave a comment.

Soft Ice, Tough Competition, New Teams, and An Evening on Ice—Skating’s Week in Review

2011-08-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

If you read Lynn Rutherford’s Indy Challenge article at IceNetwork.com this past week, you may have wondered how any pair was able to land anything with 96-degree (100 + heat index) weather pushing up against the outer wall of the arena, creating “very soft” ice conditions. Well… I couldn’t say, as I was down in the lower level of the complex for all six hours of my time there. But big props to the top pairs of the senior free skate event for succeeding in adverse conditions: Caydee Denney and John Coughlin (1st), Paige Lawrence and Rudy Swiegers (2nd), and Tiffany Vise/Don Baldwin (3rd). And Paige Lawrence… I think you’re the one who kept coming up to my table to get chocolates. Obviously we have more in common than our last name :-)

Meanwhile, Lake Placid was the place to be last weekend for ice dancing… and if you read THAT IceNetwork.com article, you already know the early-season fate of teams such as Isabella Cannuscio/Ian Lorello, Charlotte Lichtman/Dean Copely, and the new pair-up of Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donahue.

But there were at least two new North American dance teams that weren’t quite ready for competition… Madison Chock/Evan Bates, who joined forces earlier this summer (and talk about their new alliance via this Skype interview with Universal Sports…

And the even newer pairing of Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier, who will represent Canada internationally in 2012, according to articles such as this one. Poirier, of course, used to skate with Vanessa Crone, while Gilles was formerly paired with Zach Donahue (now of Hubbell/Donahue).

On a completely different note… and this time discussing a still-to-come event rather than a happened-last-week one… please check out this lovely post from a few weeks ago over at Life on the Edge (written by Allison Scott, Jeremy Abbott’s mother). It will tell you a bit about An Evening on Ice, a fundraiser happening Friday, August 12 in Burbank, CA for the U.S. Athletic Foundation… as well as its co-organizer, Nicholas La Roche. If you’re in the L.A. area next weekend, I hope you’ll try to attend!

The 2011 Indy Pairs Challenge-- I'm SO There...

2011-07-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve spent the better part of my week wondering if I’d be attending this weekend’s Indy Pairs Challenge as A) a spectator (covering it for the blog), B) a vendor (promoting/selling/signing copies of Skating on Air), or C) neither A nor B. As it turns out, I’ve been cleared for option B… so if you’re in attendance for “the largest pairs-only event in the world,” please seek me out, have a little bite of chocolate (if I remember to bring it!), and take a peek at the book if you like! I’ll be at the table festooned with fliers and posters that look a lot like that book cover over on the left side of this page :-)

I’m hoping to be there most of Saturday, during which the Senior Final and Junior Final will be taking place. The list of Junior entries is rather daunting (26 teams!), so I won’t re-create it… but there’s only a dozen pairs competing in seniors, so here they are… a quite impressive dozen at that…

Margaret Purdy / Michael Marinaro
(9th at 2011 Canadian Nationals)

Lindsay Davis / Leftheris Themistocles
(7th at 2011 U.S. Nationals)

Tiffany Vise / Don Baldwin
(6th at 2011 U.S. Nationals)

Caydee Denney / John Coughlin
(3rd & 1st, respectively, at 2011 U.S. Nationals, making their FS debut as a new team here)

Taylor Steele / Rob Schultz
(4th in Juniors, 2011 Canadian Nationals)

Ashley Cain / Joshua Reagan
(Junior champions, 2011 U.S. Nationals)

Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch
(1st at 2011 Canadian Nationals)

Paige Lawrence / Rudi Swiegers
(3rd at 2011 Canadian Nationals)

Gretchen Donlan / Andrew Speroff
(8th at 2011 U.S. Nationals)

Chloe Katz / Joe Lynch
(9th at 2011 U.S. Nationals)

Cassie Andrews / Tim LeDuc
(Junior bronze medalists, 2011 U.S. Nationals)

Andrea Poapst / Chris Knierim
(Junior silver medalists, 2011 U.S. Nationals)

More info about the Indy Pairs Challenge can be found here. Good luck to everyone, and I hope to see you there!

NBC Ensures Competitive Figure Skating Has A Place on Mainsream TV For Fall 2011

2011-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the U.S. who always wonder, around this time of year, “How much skating are we actually going to get to SEE on regular TV this season…

… because we don’t have access to Universal Sports?”
… because we can’t (or choose not to) pay for on-demand coverage?”
… because how is figure skating supposed to attract new participants and continue to grow and thrive if it’s not on network TV?”

Well, take heart. NBC released its broadcast schedule for the new season this week with regards to the ISU Grand Prix and U.S. Nationals. You can read the full article here at the official USFS site, but the specific dates/times are listed below. Most events, with the exception of Skate America and NHK, will be shown on a one-week delay as network TV often does… I’m not sure what happened with Cup of China (which isn’t getting any mainstream coverage according to this); I can only assume NBC is committed to something else around that time that is more lucrative for the network.

Please note that the Universal and IceNetwork.com schedules have not been released yet; they will, no doubt, carry the events live or near-live (in Uni Sports’ case).

And for those who are still disappointed to see NBC covering skating (as opposed to another network), please take note that NBC’s existing coverage is directly correlated to its acquisition of Olympic broadcast rights. In other words… it ain’t going anywhere for a while. And with the viewing audience as fragmented as it is today, let’s be glad it’s on mainstream TV at all!

NBC Sports 2011 ISU Grand Prix Series Broadcast Schedule(All times ET; check local listings for times in your area)

Saturday, Oct. 22
2011 Hilton Honors Skate America (LIVE)
3-6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 5
Skate Canada International
4-6 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 13
NHK Trophy (Japan)
2-4 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 27
Trophee Eric Bompard (France)
2-4 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 3
Rostelecom Cup (Russia)
1-3 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 11
Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (Quebec)
12-2 p.m

NBC Sports 2012 U.S. Championships Broadcast Schedule(All times ET; check local listings for times in your area)

Saturday, Jan. 28
Free Dance (LIVE)
4-6 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 28
Ladies Free Skate (LIVE)
9-11 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 29
Men's and Pairs Free Skate (LIVE)
3-6 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 4
Skating Spectacular
2-4 p.m.

Seven Reasons to Beat the Heat via the 2011 Liberty Open

2011-07-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

Question: What’s cool when it’s hot? (speaking literally)

Answer: An ice rink.

Q: What’s cooler when it’s REALLY hot? (Not speaking literally)

A: An off-season skating competition that attracts international competitors (such as Philadelphia's LIBERTY OPEN).

Q: What’s cool on a hot day, but seems hot in a way because many performances are new, and fresh, and actually quite cool? (Not really making sense at all now—I blame the heat!!—but hopefully you know what I mean)

A: Performances such as the ones I’ve linked to below.
(NOTE: Short and Free skates are judged and awarded separately.)

Samantha Cesario’s Black Swan FS
17 year-old Cesario has been off the radar for the past year or so due to injury, but she appears ready to roar back… winning “Group B” both in the short and free senior programs.

Leah Keiser’s SP (partial)
She’s 13, she’s got a triple lutz/triple toe (unfortunately not shown in this clip), and she won “Group A” both in the short and free senior programs.

Stephen Carriere’s La Vie en Rose/Mack the Knife SP
Don’t count him out yet… the former U.S. men’s bronze medalist put down a clean and stylish short to win the event.

Keegan Messing’s FS
He’s not particularly graceful, and doesn’t appear to currently have the stamina to skate his program cleanly… but this Alaskan teenager’s jumps are getting fierce, and his spins are even fiercer.

Denney/Coughlin’s SP
If you are eager to see what this U.S. power pair looks like in competition, wait no more… they didn’t skate an FS here, but did a fine short to win that event.

Dube/Wolfe’s FS
Canada’s Jessica Dube now skates with Sebastien Wolfe, and while their FS wasn’t spot-on great, they definitely had moments of brilliance… such as a fairly successful throw triple flip, and the wise avoidance of side-by-side triple salchows (one of Dube’s biggest downfalls in her last 2 years with Bryce Davison).

Nathan Chen’s Godfather FS
Chen, who I believe has won the U.S. Novice Men’s title for the past 2 years, is entering the 7th grade this fall… and upgrading to the Junior Men’s division. And taking on The Godfather for his free skate! How will all this work for the little guy who is essentially the mascot of USFS? Pretty good so far… he won his event here.

The Showdown Highlights of the 2011 ISU Grand Prix (Part 2)

2011-07-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

I’m returning to the analysis of the 2011-12 Grand Prix that I started 10 days ago, for if everyone shows to these as scheduled, there are enough interesting showdowns to fill a classic spaghetti western…

NHK TROPHY (or, simply, NHK)
Last year, NHK led off the entire series; this year it’s in the middle of the pack. But for both pairs and dance, the excitement level should create a certain “new-season smell.” Pairs boasts a sort of musical chairs situation, with Pang/Tong, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Kavaguti/Smirnov, and Iliushechkina/Maisuradze all seemingly serious contenders for the 3 podium places. Meanwhile there’s no clear front-runner on the ice dance docket… but with the Shibutanis, Weaver/Poje, and Ilinykh/Katsalapov all in the mix, it looks like a great time for at least one of these three to make a very positive move.

TROPHEE ERIC BOMPARD (TEB)
If Evan Lysacek is, indeed, returning to competitive skating this fall—and his recent “tweets” sure seem to indicate he’s training as such—TEB will be his second event, and will pit him against Patrick Chan for the first time since Vancouver (where Chan finished a somewhat disappointing 5th). But if Chan is able to skate anything like he did in the past 6 months—heck, even if he has a human Zamboni moment or two, as he did at Skate Canada last season—ah, how interesting this may be. As for the ladies, the potential showdown material is rich: two veterans who are coming off of stellar comeback seasons (Carolina Kostner and Alissa Czisny), a veteran trying to rebound from an injury-plagued season (Laura Lepisto), a breakout star from last year (Kanako Murakami), and a potential breakout star for the new year (Liza Tuktamisheva). This will be the second event of the season; All four competitors will be making their second visit to the series by this point.

ROSTELECOM CUP (Cup of Russia, or CoR)
I suppose much of the skating world will feverishly await this, the final qualifying GP event, to see if Evgeny Plushenko will indeed leap into Russia’s “TBD” spot and once again use the wind created by all that thunderous applause to further inflate his parade balloon of an ego. As for me… yeah, I’m kind of hoping he gets (temporarily) trapped under something heavy long enough to stay away. Particularly when that creates an opportunity for either Michal Brezina, Jeremy Abbott, or Artur Gachinski—who I’d never have slipped into that list, save for the fact that he managed to claim bronze, at Worlds, in Moscow, just a few months ago. Should that opportunity pass them by, get ready for an interesting Ladies event… with Asada appearing to be an unreliable choice for a front-runner these days, the door to victory could be open to Russia’s own Alena Leonova, Finland’s Kiira Korpi, USA’s Rachael Flatt… or even relative newcomer Agnes Zawadzki (USA) or true newcomer Sofia Biryukova (RUS).

Just in case you’re wondering who that last lady is, here’s her most recent Russian Nats SP as the Clip of the Day.

PyeongChang, 2018 it is... With Kim Still in the Mix? Well...

2011-07-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

So as you no doubt have heard by now, PyeongChang, South Korea was chosen earlier this week as the location for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. As you may or may not have heard (or read), the marvelous Aaron over at Axels, Loops & Spins has a quote posted from Kim Yu-Na indicating she plans to still be competing by the time the 2018 Games came to pass. Not an unprecedented thought; numerous skaters have set a certain “home country” event as their personal competitive finale, while others just happened to be in their prime when the Olympics came to their backyard. But how have these various home-country heroes fared under that kind of pressure? Let’s take a quick look at all the Winter Olympics that have transpired since World War II with host country reps on the medals podium:

1948 (St. Moritz, Switzerland)-- Hans Gerschwiler (SWI) wins the silver behind gold medalist Dick Button (USA).
1960 (Squaw Valley, United States) – Americans David Jenkins and Carol Heiss won the singles events, while Barbara Roles and the Ludingtons earning bronzes.
1964 (Innsbruck, Austria) Regine Heitzer (AUT) claimed silver behind Sjoukie Dijkstra (NED).
1968 (Grenoble, France) Patrick Pera (FRA) claimed bronze behind Wolfgang Schwarz (AUT) and Timothy Wood (USA).
1980 (Lake Placid, United States) Linda Fratianne and, Charlie Tickner both of the USA, took silver and bronze, respectively.
1988 (Calgary, Canada) Brian Orser, Liz Manley, and the dance team of Wilson/McCall kept the medals coming in for Canada amidst a sea of silver and bronze.
2002 (Salt Lake City, USA) Timothy Goebel nabbed bronze and Sarah Hughes claimed gold—both at relatively young ages.
2010 (Vancouver, Canada) Joannie Rochette took bronze and made it perhaps the defining moment of her career… while Virtue/Moir went all the way to gold territory.

So without doing checking to determine if Ms. Heitzer ever stood a chance of defeating Ms. Dijkstra by way of a previous win (I’m pretty sure Dijkstra was dominant in that era)… or to speculate as to whether Hughes could have even come close to gold in Salt Lake City had she been the gold medal favorite... is the question of how often a home-country, gold-meal fave can completely succeed with that mission?

David Jenkins and Carol Heiss of the Squaw Valley U.S. dream team? Check.
Linda Fratianne, a U.S. and World Champion in Lake Placid? Not quite.
Charlie Tickner, a U.S. champ and former World Champ, also in Lake Placid? Make that “not quite” a double. (He got bronze.)
Brian Orser, representing Canada in Calgary? Close, but no gold-plated cigar.
Virtue/Moir, representing Canada in Vancouver? Absolutely… but as you see, it took 50 years for history to repeat itself.

In other words, I think it would be fantastic for Kim to have the kind of staying power that puts her in PyeongChang as a competitor, let alone a still-dominant factor, seven years from now. And for now, I’m just gonna leave it at that!

I decided to dig up one of those home-country medal performances for a ClipoftheDay by way of Charlie Tickner. Here is the LP that helped him to his 1980 bronze medal in Lake Placid… and listen close to Dick Button and the late great Jim McKay at the beginning of this clip; you can hear McKay sound just a little bit exasperated as Button quickly emphasizes that Tickner still has a shot at gold. (That shot, unfortunately, is blown by at about the 1:55 mark.)

The Showdown Highlights of the 2011 ISU Grand Prix (Part 1)

2011-07-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

As with last year, I’m going to start the Grand Prix showdowns by looking at the first three events of the 2011-12 GP season… and of course, these are subject to change as athletes withdraw from events, get injured, etc.

SKATE AMERICA (SkAm)

The 2011 season kickoff looks like it will find its biggest star in 2010 OGM Evan Lysacek, who is currently scheduled to compete. If he’s there, he will meet up against current World silver medalist Takahiko Kozuka, fan favorite Florent Amodio… and Michal Brezina, who had TWO quads at Worlds and might be quite the force if he can stay injury-free this coming year.

The other highlight at SkAm should be the ladies event, which will be a sort of re-match between potential World bronze medalists Alissa Czisny, Carolina Kostner, and Ksenia Makarova. Kostner won that battle, as you know, but Czisny was seen to be a fall-on-a-triple-lutz away from it in April. And while Makarova didn’t quite have the jump content to stay in the race at Worlds, she was in 3rd after the SP and could very well come back with a new trick or two up her sleeve in the fall.

SKATE CANADA (SkCan)

The pairs event could prove quite interesting here, as it features what I’m calling The Next Big Thing (current World silver medalists Volosozhar/Trankov) vs. The Big Little Thing (tiny Chinese phenoms and Junior World champs Sui/Han).

The men will see another Patrick Chan/Daisuke Takahashi showdown (good luck beating Chan on his home turf, Dice-K), while the ladies will see something both very new (the senior debut of Russia’s Junior World silver medalist Elizaveta Tuktamisheva) and something kind of new (Akiko Suzuki as the sole Japanese entrant; no standing in Asada’s or Ando’s shadow this time).

CUP OF CHINA (CoC)

As for ice dance, keep your eyes on it when we arrive at CoC. With no Canadian teams scheduled to compete, no Davis/White here, and the French team Pechalat/Bourzat taking a break after back-to-back events (SkAm and SkCan), the frontrunners appear to be Bobrova/Soloviev of Russia and current World bronze medalists the Shibutanis (USA). Could the young ShibSibs pull in their first senior GP victory this fall? This event may hold the answer…

Pairs also ought to be interesting at CoC (as usual), with home country faves Pang/Tong and Zhang/Zhang competing against each other for the first time in over a year… add Russia’s Kavaguti/Smirnov into the mix, and I see an above-average early-season event taking place!

I’ll take a closer look at the second half of the upcoming GP season next week. Happy Independence Day to all my U.S. readers!

2011-12 ISU Grand Prix Assignments At a Glance

2011-06-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Five months from today, all the finalists for the 2011-12 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating will be decided… so as per tradition, the ISU thought late June to be the best time to let skaters know their assignments during the six-week whirlwind that precedes said finals. You can check out the initial assignments for all four disciplines right here.

At a glance (or two), here are some of the more interesting things to note:

+ Miki Ando has joined Kim Yu-Na in sitting out the upcoming GP season… kind of interesting, considering the ill effect such a strategy had on Kim this past year…

+ Perhaps in anticipation of two GP assignments he has received—Skate America, and Trophee Eric Bompard—2010 OGM Evan Lysacek has reportedly just resumed training with Frank Carroll…

+ The rest of the rosters are comprised, by and large, by the usual suspects—which is to say that there aren’t many “rookies” entering the Senior GP arena next season:

-- For the men, the only newbie is USA’s Richard Dornbush (who competed/won the Junior GP title last season).
-- The ladies are welcoming just one new US skater (Christina Gao), one new Chinese skater (Kexin Zhang), and one new French skater (Yretha Silete)… but the big attention will most likely be on three young’uns from Russia (Sofia Biryukova, Adelina Sotnikova, and Elizaveta Tuktamishieva). As Tara Lipinski “tweeted” earlier this week, the other ladies better get to work on their triple/triple combos…

+ The pairs events boast something like 8 new teams, the majority of those being Canadian and American—if only because recent breakups/retirements gave them no choice.

+ It’s a similar story for ice dance, though it appears to be U.S. and Russian teams leading the way in terms of first-time talent. (It’s worth noting that only Davis/White have been named to the Skate America trifecta of American dance teams thus far.)

+ Look closely at the lineups, and you’ll see that the overall number of participants has been reduced across the board—10 singles skaters per event (down from 12), and 8 pairs/dance teams (down from 10).

+ And you’ll also notice that the series is kicking off with Skate America for the first time in a while… followed by Skate Canada, Cup of China, NHK Trophy, Trophee Bompard, and Rostelecom Cup… in that order. And back to Canada (Quebec City) for the GP Final.

More on the specific GP showdowns later in the week!

Are Samuelson And Bates The Latest Team to Spilt?

2011-06-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I don't have much time to post today, but wanted to pass this on about
Samuelson and Bates reportedly ending their partnership, joining that increasingly long line of broken-up dance teams in this particular post-season. As I write this it hasn't yet made the IceNetwork headlines; the article in the above link is from Universal Sports. but the original source is cited as the Detroit Free Press (where Sam/Bates had been training prior to the injury that took them out of last season entirely).

No "retirements" mentioned this time; apparently both are looking for new partners.

!!!!!!

I haven't done a Clip of the Day in quite a while, so here's one for you... in the form of a musical question first posed by Mr. Phil Collins over 25 years ago. Keeps popping into my head of late.

Come Get a Copy of "Skating on Air" This Saturday 6/25... and Get it Signed by the Author!

2011-06-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hey... have you heard... I'll be signing copies of my book Skating on Air in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park this coming weekend!

WHERE WILL IT BE?: The Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. (corner of Oak Park Ave. and Washington Blvd.)

WHEN WILL IT BE?: Saturday, June 25, Noon-3PM Chicago time

WILL I BE ABLE TO BUY COPIES OF SKATING ON AIR THERE?: Yes

HOW MUCH PER COPY?: $40

DO YOU ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS?: Sorry (Oak Park Arms is NOT a bookstore. No, seriously, it's not.)

DO YOU TAKE PERSONAL CHECKS?: Only if I know you personally (and even then it's on a case-by-case basis-- heh)

WHAT IF I WANT TO BUY JOHNNY WEIR'S BOOK INSTEAD?: I'll get you some directions to the nearest Barnes & Noble

DO I HAVE TO GET MY BOOK SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR?: Ah, so you've seen my handwriting already. No worries
:-)

WHAT IF THIS WHOLE BOOK-SIGNING THING TAKES TOO LONG AND I GET HUNGRY?: It won't. But I hear there will be free refreshments just the same...

DID YOU MISS ANYTHING?: If I did, will you be sure to ask me via a "comment" below the post?

OK, WILL DO: Thanks.

Coach Changes, Future Plans, and Fines (Oh My!)-- Skating's Week in Review

2011-06-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Another flurry of skating headlines has descended upon us this past week. What to pay attention to… where’s the best place to learn more about them…? Here’s my two cents on (most of) those matters:

The Flatt Fine—***3 Blades out of a possible 4 (in terms of significance)***

I made note of it when blogging about the Ladies Final at Worlds, as did several over fans, bloggers… and writers such as Phil Hersh, who wrote the above article. But back in April Hersh wrote a piece that went so far as get several outraged-sounding quotes from Frank Carroll on the irresponsibility of Rachael Flatt and/or her coach Tom Zakrajsek in not reporting her tibia stress fracture to U.S. Figure Skating. (Carroll as much as held Flatt responsible for the U.S. not having 3 spots in 2012 Worlds, insisting that his student, 1st alternate Mirai Nagasu, would have fared much better.) And now USFS has chimed in as well with an official reprimand and undisclosed fine for Flatt, who won 2010 Nationals and finished 7th at the Vancouver Olympics.

Even if it’s a “let’s make Rachael an example” kind of punishment rather than anything very monumental, it still kicks up a lot of interesting questions:

+ Will this affect Flatt’s reputation as an athlete for the long-term?
+ Will it affect Zakrajsek’s reputation as a coach?
+ Will it prompt more skaters/coaches to make the decision to pull an injured athlete out of critical events… or will it keep even more of them from speaking up when they’re hurt, offering a banal “It just wasn’t my day” as excuse for a poor performance?
+ Should we growl at Phil Hersh for bringing Carroll into this debate (noting, as some already have, that Hersh does not seem to care for Flatt’s skating in general)? Or should we praise him for doing what journalists do—probing deeper into the story at hand?

OK, that’s more than enough to mull over. I haven’t even reached the rest of the list yet!

Rippon Changes Coaches…(andcountries) ***2 1/2 Blades***

“And countries” is a little misleading; he remains as American-representing as apple pie, baseball, and overblown political scandals. But Adam Rippon has been training in Canada for the past couple of years—even staying up there when he parted ways with coach Brian Orser several weeks back. No more, though… he’s crossing back into Michigan, to train with Jason Dungjen. Who is married to Yuka Sato. Who coaches Jeremy Abbott. Ah-ha! Sounds like Abbott and Rippon, who came in 4th and 5th respectively at U.S. Nationals, will be gunning all the more for some sort of 1-2 finish next year in an effort to reclaim the Worlds spots they failed to earn in 2011. Will Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner be able to withstand the heat in this particular kitchen? Mmm, I smell a rumble…

By the way, I recommend the link above because it not only expands on Rippon’s decision but showcases a fun collection of photos of him (several from Rippon’s personal collection). There are video links as well.

Wagner Changes Coaches…(and Coasts) ***2 Blades***

The reason I’m only giving this “2 blades” is because it rapidly became one of the worst-kept secrets in the past month of skating switcheroos. Ashley Wagner herself was announcing her move to California (from Delaware) two weekends ago, and by the middle of last week, word on the street was that she’d left Priscilla Hill for John Nicks. The “official” IceNetwork link is above; I found it particularly interesting because Wagner indicated she and Hill were now perhaps too close as friends to maintain a coaching partnership. So if you’re looking for the standard “I need a change” statement from Wagner, look elsewhere. Given that her new coach is a British, 82-year old man on the opposite side of the country whom all students refer to as “Mr. Nicks”… maybe that need for change was just a little obvious.

Weir Won’t Compete Next Season ***1 ½ Blades***

I’m not sure who out there might’ve been nursing a hope that Johnny G.Weir would return to competition next fall, but that blade-and-a-half up there is for you. :-) Not to say that he’s not serious about trying to stage a Sochi comeback a la other COAB competitors (COAB= Currently On A Break), but in season 2 of a 4-year cycle? Fahgeddaboutit.

Plushenko Reinstated; May Compete Next Season ***1 Blade***

On the other hand we have Plushy—again—who is reportedly a possibility for Cup of Russia and and Russian Nationals in the 2011-12 season. THAT’s the one-blade worth of significance here… to anyone considering his “reinstatement” news, I ask them to consider the article that ran about a year ago (which I discussed here) which alluded to his suspension only lasting a year anyway.

If you check out the IceNetwork article in the above link, be sure to scroll down and read the comments from a half-dozen less-than-thrilled readers.

Disney Darlings In the Commentary Chairs, and Other "Problems" That an ABC/ESPN Olympics Might've Created

2011-06-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

So you may have heard by now that NBC/Universal has been awarded the broadcast rights to not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2018 Winter Games in a location to be announced shortly, and the 2020 Summer Games in Outer Space. (OK, you got me… that one won’t be decided for two more years. But I still think I might have a contender here.)

Anyway, I’ve seen plenty of comments from skating fans about the decision, and seen that many are already lamenting it. What I have NOT seen, at least not yet, is a list of the pros and cons for each network in the bidding war… so I’ve come up with my own!

This time is the Pro/Con list for ABC/ESPN*; a similar list will follow soon for FOX. (And I encourage you to post your own comments about who should/shouldn’t have gotten the rights… are you happy about it being NBC? Are you sad? Angry? Indifferent? Why?)

Excuse me as I take a moment to firmly plant my tongue in my cheek--

PROS AND CONS OF AN ABC/ESPN WINTER OLYMPICS
(*NOTE: ABC no longer has a sports department, so everything would have been via ESPN or “ESPN on ABC” as they like to say.)

PRO: ESPN promised to “cover all events live.”
CON: Somehow they’d still manage to pre-empt most skating due to basketball overrun, bowling matches, dog shows…

PRO: With Disney holding the purse strings at ESPN, no expense would have been spared to bring the best the Olympics had to offer.
CON: With Disney holding the purse strings at ESPN, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez would have been brought in to do the figure skating commentary.

PRO: ESPN would have made sure the viewers knew how every skater fared in every event…
CON: … by “crawling” descriptions of the lesser-known skater’s programs on the lower third of the screen during hockey games: Kevin Van der Perren, BEL…costume resembles a superhero… music is overblown soundtrack of some kind… quad toe: well done… triple axel: singled… footwork: pedestrian…

PRO: ESPN has a huge audience base…
CON: … with a viewing demographic that doesn’t give a lick about figure skating.

PRO: ESPN is known as The Worldwide Leader in Sports….
CON: … but no matter how you say it, it’s still not ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

And the Hits Just Keep on Comin': Chock/Zuerlein Are Over

2011-06-07T09:56:00.001-07:00

Just when you think it might be safe to check the Ice Network website... you see this news on their Facebook feed about the latest casualty in ice partnerships.

Yep, just a few days after the Crone/Poirier split was announced, we get word that Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein are following suit. You know, the junior-level sensations that had a breakout senior season in 2010-11, which culminated in a 9th place finish at their senior Worlds debut... yeah, that team. Zuerlein's retiring and focusing on his education, while Chock will continue skating and look a new...

SIGH. I can't continue. Too depressing.

By the way, for anyone wondering how Samuelson/Bates would fit back into the U.S. ice dance landscape once they return (or should I say IF they return??)... I'm starting to think they'll do just fine.

Zawadzki Minus Zakrajsek Equals Santee, Again

2011-06-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Now here’s a unique twist on the coaching carousel…Agnes Zawadzki, who made a fairly impressive debut on the Senior GP circuit this past season and finished 4th at the most recent U.S. Nationals, has announced something that’s not so much of a switch as it is a switchback.

After spending approximately the past two years under the tutelage of Tom Zakrajsek, Zawadzki plans to re-employ David Santee as her head coach, with Christy Krall assisting with her “day-to-day” training as she remains out in Colorado Springs. Santee, who is based in the Chicago suburbs as Zawadzki originally was, worked with her the first seven years of her career and got her as far as Novice Nationals. I’m pretty sure he also worked for a time with one of my favorite up-and-comers Jason Brown.

Aaand, as I’ve probably mentioned a time or two before, Santee is one of best U.S. figure skaters of his generation. His credits include 8 U.S. medals, 7 consecutive trips to Worlds (where he always finished in the top 8 and earned a silver medal in 1981), and two Olympics (where he finished 6th in ’76 and 4th in ’80). I hope he travels with his “new” student to at least some of her GP assignments this fall; it would be fun to see him onscreen again.

Crone/Poirier The Latest Skating Partnership to be "Fallin'" Apart

2011-06-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Another month, another round of didn't-see-that-coming breakups?

Apparently so, as word broke today that reigning Canadian ice dance champs Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier have announced the end of their decade-long partnership (according to this Globe and Mail story and several others).

The main reason this came as a surprise to me was their ages. With Crone only 20 years old and Poirier even younger (at age 19), their future in a discipline where teams have been known to compete into their 30s seemed bright. And with the notable exception of Worlds, when C/P finished a (presumably) disappointing 10th while Canadian teammates Virtue/Moir and Weaver/Poje finished 2nd and 5th, respectively... their respect and success as ice dancers seemed to continue on the upswing this past year.

Crone is said to be "following a different path" now (aka no longer competing), while Poirier will try to find a new partner. But doing so after reaching the heights with someone whom you've literally grown up alongside? I can't say I envy him.

End-of-May Rink Roundup: Weir, Plushenko, Kerrigan... and Midori Ito?

2011-05-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

We seem to be taking a breather from retirements, break-ups, reconsiderations, and the like in skating’s off-season… at least for the moment… so while I mull over any final thoughts for the 2010-11 season, I’d better at least get caught up on the headlines:

Johnny Weir named Grand Marshal for L.A.Gay Pride parade…
I’m surprised this article in the Hollywood Reporter doesn’t mention the date of the parade. But then again, the article refers to Weir as a “reality star” well before it mentions he’s a two-time Olympian… and it never acknowledges him as a 3-time U.S. Champion. Does anyone know when the parade occurs? Are any of you planning to go?

AND, he’s still pondering a return to competitive skating…
Oh wait, never mind… according to this Phil Hersh article, the parade will be on June 12. But read the rest of the article, if you’re curious where the Weir Barometer currently sits on this topic.

AS is Evgeny Plushenko… you know, the banned one…
Depending on which story you believe, the ban placed on Plushenko from Olympic-eligible competition is either as good as lifted, or headed that way. Here’s one that suggests it will officially be decided within the next few weeks.

But you know who’s REALLY interesting that’s coming back?
If you said “1989 World Champion and 1992 Olympic Silver Medalist Midori Ito,” well, maybe you read this article already. (OK, she won’t exactly be in the ISU Grand Prix, but who cares?)

On a very different note (and speaking of 1992 Olympic medalists)…
The trial involving Mark Kerrigan (brother to Nancy Kerrigan) and the death of their father has played out in a Boston courthouse over the past few weeks. In short: both Nancy and her mother took the stand in defense of Mark, and in fact he was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter. But he still has to serve time for assault and battery. Here’s one of the stories covering the sentencing.

And the verdict is in for PSA’s Coach of the Year…
After the podium sweep at Worlds, could there be any doubt this would go to Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva? This is the IceNetwork article.

"Skating on Air: The Broadcast History of an Olympic Marquee Sport" is Now Available!

2011-05-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to tell you all-- especially those who have seen it advertised on the side of this blog for months, wondering if it would EVER be out of "pre-order" mode-- that my book is finally, officially, released as of last Wednesday!

Skating on Air: The Broadcast History of an Olympic Marquee Sport can be purchased a few different ways...

1) Click on the link "Order your copy online!" seen in the left margin of this blog.

2) Go to your favorite bookstore. They are unlikely to have any in stock, but should be able to order a copy for you... that way you're supporting not only my book, but bookstores in general
:-)

3) Yes, it's also available through the biggies such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.

I'm still working on getting reviews for the book, but for those who'd like to know a little more about it (and haven't tired of hearing me talk about it on this here website), check out these two interviews:

--At the World Figure Skating blog (3/22/11)

-- At Lifeskate; also includes press release (4/12/11)

Got a question about the book? Feel free to email me or post it as a comment...

Enjoy!

Retirements, Reverse Retirements, Breakups, Teamups… 9 days in the Life of the 2011 Skating Off-Season

2011-05-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Maybe it’s because Worlds took place as late as it did this year, but wow, are the off-season announcements coming at us fast and furious these days! I was still working on my Worlds post-mortem when this wheel started turning… so rather than sprinkle these around, I’ve got what I think is the scorecard to date listed below (as well as a little bit of commentary):

May 10th--

Ryan Bradley announces his retirement

Surprise factor (on a 1-10 scale): 2
…although, as seems to be the trend these days, he’s “retaining eligibility” should he decide to return to competitive skating.

Impact factor on his discipline: 3
While his showmanship and sense of humor is most definitely valued (especially at Nationals year after year), Bradley’s never had much of an impact on the international scene… after all, he never made an Olympic team, never cracked the Top 12 at Worlds and only won 2 medals (neither of them gold) in all his years of senior GP competition.

May 12th-- U.S. ice dancers Hubbell & Hubbell announce break up

Surprise factor: 6
This is mostly because I can’t, off the top of my head, recall any sibling teams that have broken up and then continued with other partners… as appears to be the Hubbells’ plan.

Impact factor: 2
Because the Hubbells may have been rising stars, but they hadn’t yet placed higher than 6th at a senior GP event. Let’s see what happens when they change partners and keep dancing…

May 13th--

Italian ice dancers Faiella/Scali announce their ”return”

Surprise factor: 9
What the what??! Apparently their “retirement” had all the duration of a maternity leave.

Impact factor: 6
Yes, they’re older had a bummer of a season in 2010-11, but that World Bronze they won wasn’t THAT long ago.

May 17th--

U.S. Pairs skaters Denney and Coughlin announce partnership

Surprise factor: 7
If I was spending more time on skating message boards I suppose this number would be lower, as I heard there were rumors circulating about this possibility about as soon as the Yankowskas/Coughlin split went public. But silly me, I thought Coughlin was simply ready to move on…

Impact factor: 6
All we’ve got to go on are past histories with former partners, which makes this prediction little more than a stab in the dark. But if those past histories have anything to do with the Dennlin future, there could be some interesting things to look forward to. Providing they stay together long enough to find out, that is.

May 18th--

Evora/Ladwig commit to the 2011-12 season

Surprise factor: 5
In a sea of short-term partnerships, these two just completed their NINTH season together. Perhaps the bigger surprise is that they aren’t retiring. But with all the podium partner shakeups, I’m guessing they want to make a run for the national title more than ever.

Impact factor: 4
It’s hard to know if E/L can surpass their surprise top 10 Olympic finish; aside from their first-ever GP bronze medal this season, it wasn’t a stellar follow-up year for them. But if just one pairs team can be inspired next season by their beautiful lifts, all the better.

So... which headlines (if any) took YOU by surprise?

2011 Worlds Recap-- Fractured Fairytales Pt. 4: The Ladies

2011-05-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

As I launch into this final installment of Fractured Fairytales, please know that I'm keeping tabs on all the various breakups/pairups/retirements/reverse retirements that have already taken place in the early weeks of the "off-season"... and will post about them later this week. (Another one of the above is bound to happen by then anyway.)

So let's dedicate this edition of FF to THE LADIES...

The Battle Royale

Once upon a time in the Far East, there were two countries considered to be “rivals”—something which manifested itself in different ways through the years, not the least of which came to be figure skating. One country, Japan, built up a deep team of very talented men and women that could overtake any competition at any given time. The other country, South Korea, found itself putting most of its competitive hope in just one young lady, known as Kim … but oh, how that young lady could steal the show! Even the most formidable Japanese opponents were often forced to take a back seat to her. There was only one problem with this-- if Kim opted not to compete for a while, there wasn’t much of a backup plan… other than to feverishly await her return.

So when the all important World Championships came around, fourteen months after Kim had become the newest Olympic figure skating queen, 13 months since she had last competed, and about 9 months since an infamous falling out with her now-ex coach, a string of questions hung thick in the air: was she as great as she’d ever been? Could she sweep in at the end of the season and take the biggest crown of the year with zero mileage on her 2011 programs? Or would one or more of Japan’s finest, who had been representing their country proudly all year long and felt even more of a need to do so in this… arguably one of Japan’s darkest hours… step up for the win?

Once it became clear that Japan’s youngest representative at the event wasn’t quite ready to challenge for the throne, and perhaps its best-known representative simply wasn’t up to the challenge this year (see the bonus Fractured Fairytale The Girl Who Started All Over), it came down to one relentlessly consistent young woman by the name of Ando. And when all was said and done, there was one clear winner… on paper anyway…

FREE SKATE RESULTS
Total jumps: Ando’s 45.53 to Kim’s 42.07
Total spins: Ando’s 16.00 to Kim’s 15.42
Total footwork: both earned 4.23
Components average: Kim’s 8.358 to Ando’s 8.058 (per component)

But whether you thought Kim wasn’t being rewarded enough for her OGM grace, or was getting too much of a free pass with her imperfect short program, it’s hard to deny what kept Kim from victory: the jumps, pure and simple. She may have been the most gifted all-around skater of the day—her components were certainly scored as such—nonetheless, singular but major flaws in both programs kept the Korean queen from her throne. Which left a proud Ando with something to make the people of her country smile… even if it was for just a minute or two.

The Belle of the Bronze

Who knew 3rd place could be such a coveted position in the World Championship rankings? Three maidens named Leonova, Kostner, and Czisny… that’s who.

Leonova was a sprightly Russian skater with hair of many colors… not many colors all at once; rather, a multitude of shades over time. This time she was a relatively bright shade of red, in a season that had proven at that point to be anything BUT bright. Kostner was a pretty tall Italian lass who had managed a pretty good season, despite having to forego two of the most difficult jumps in her repertoire. And Czisny was an elegant American lady who had spent the past year chasing her demons down in various corners of rinks around the world, determined to redeem herself for missing the Olympic team. She had been successful, for the most part. And her success had led her to Worlds, where she sat in 4th after the SP. There in Russia, where Worlds was held, Leonova had the crowd wrapped around her satin-gloved finger. The longer she skated, the clearer it became that she had risen to the occasion as she hadn’t done all year, especially in the way she landed her jumps solidly rather than stepping or flipping quickly out of them. It was a lovefest like no other as Leonova’s scored sailed her into second place…

She was down to third place when Kostner took the ice and, to the bewilderment of some (and probably many in the arena) when she skated a pretty, but technically less challenging program… and ended up beating Leonova for bronze by less than one point. To break it down by the numbers, it went like this:

FREE SKATE RESULTS (NOTE: Leonova and Kostner were in a dead heat going into the FS)

Total jumps: Leonova’s 43.34 to Kostner’s 39.92 +3.42
Total spins: Kostner’s 15.05 to Leonova’s 14.71
Total footwork: Kostner’s 5.33 to Leonova’s 4.30
Components average: Kostner’s 8.078 to Leonova’s 7.728 (per component)

As for Czisny, well, the legend will go that a fall on her first triple lutz—a fall she attributed to “nerves,” the all-purpose name for many of those demons she’d been chasing—cost her from upsetting both Leonova and Kostner for the bronze medal. But even without the jump, she had a better overall jump score in the free skate than bronze-medalist Kostner. And her magnificent spins—as much a trademark of the maiden as her soft-spokenness—earned her more points than any other lady in the event, including Kim and Ando! But her footwork was deemed a point or so less complex than Leonova’s… and 2 points or so less complex than Kostner’s. And when it came down to the all-important components, Czisny’s averaged 7.642 points. It was just a shade below Leonova’s average, and quite a bit below Kostner’s… nothing strong enough to transcend the rest. And so Czisny came up a little short for a medal, and yes, perhaps a few straggling demons came and held it out of her reach this year. But she’d stayed in the hunt throughout, something she'd rarely done before… and won over plenty along the way.

And learned that sometimes, all that glitters doesn’t have to be gold. Or bronze, for that matter.

The Song of Sarah

Finally, we come to the story of a Swiss miss who’d had a somewhat turbulent career, punctuated by ill-timed injuries. Although she was an 8-time national champion, a 2006 GP bronze medalist, and even a two-time European silver medalist, she’d never cracked the top 5 in three Olympic runs and nine World Championships. In fact, at 2010 Worlds she suffered a wrenching fall in the SP and failed to qualify for the finals. Still, she wasn’t ready to call it a career. At age 26 at the start of the 2010-11 season, she pushed through additional injuries to get to one last competition—the 2011 European Championships—where she finally claimed gold.

In other words… Sarah Meier was not even present at these World championships; she retired immediately after Europeans in February after calling her victory “the perfect ending.” Which goes to show just how difficult it can be to find an Un-Fractured Fairytale in figure skating.

Worlds 2011 Dance Recap: Fractured Fairytales, Pt. 3

2011-05-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

Apologies for taking longer with these “tales” than planned… my daughter was in a play this week, which galvanized a lot of our time around here!

Here are three more Fractured Fairytales straight out of Moscow’s World Championships…

The Bridesmaid Who Wore Black to Her Wedding

In the far-off land of Michigan, there once lived a fine young ice dancer named Davis who was often said to resemble a Disney princess. Quite the compliment, it would seem… and yet, Davis longed to resemble something else: the best ice dancer in the whole world. It wasn’t that she and her dance partner hadn’t been presented with countless trophies, ribbons and medals through the years… they were very appreciative of all their hardware. But in recent memory, time and time again, the medals for the biggest events were for SECOND place… SECOND best. And to complicate matters, Davis and her partner White always lost to the same couple… also living in the far-off land of Michigan. They (Virtue and Moir) were known as “friendly rivals,” for everyone reportedly got along famously, but Davis couldn’t help but feel like a bridesmaid to Virtue’s “bride”… over and over again. There was nothing to do but work hard… at the most challenging dance she and White could muster… and keep going. Maybe Disney princesses would wither under the strain, but this Davis girl was nobody’s princess. She and White persevered, and eventually skated away with at least one World title to call their own… all while tango-ing in dramatic black. And THAT’s how the bridesmaid became a bride… at last!

The Curse of the Slippery Dance Floor

In the spirit of certain old adages such as a stitch in time saves nine and actions speak louder than words, every now and again the skating world is reminded of a very special adage of sorts: ice is slippery. Sure, it seems more like a cold hard fact (no pun intended) than a wisdom-laden saying, but when the ice dancing world is at its best—as it often is by World Championships time—it soars with blissful ease over that ice, and we start to forget the repercussions of One False Step. But this year we were reminded of it at least twice…

+ A Czech Republic pair known as Mysliveckova/Novak suffered a fall in the Short Dance (OK, it was just Novak’s fall) which contributed greatly to their failure to qualify for the free dance. Despite finishing 16th at their Worlds debut last year, the young Czech team had to settle for 22nd this time.

+ And as you might have heard and/or seen a million times by now, a much better known team from France known as Pechalat/Bourzat suffered a similar fate… the would-be heirs to the podium tumbled to the ice during their otherwise enchanting free dance, thereby tumbling out of 3rd place as well… wherein yet another of our Fractured Fairy Tales lies.

An Odd Sort of Homecoming

Once upon a time there were two Moscow-born Russian—a man and a woman—who left Russia (individually) in the early 1990s with North America in their sights. Approximately 10 years later, the man (named Spilband) and the woman (named Zoueva) joined their coaching and choreographic forces… nearly a decade after that, they found themselves coaching two teams to Olympic gold and silver medals. As if this wasn’t crazy enough… the following year saw a complete sweep of the podium by Zoueva/Spilband dance teams. Ironically, not one of their podium teams represented Russia…and even more ironically, their podium sweep on non-Russian dance teams took place in Moscow—their hometown! An odd sort of homecoming indeed.

The final installment of Fractured Fairytales to come in the next few days!

Worlds 2011 Men's Recap: Fractured Fairytales, Pt. 2

2011-05-10T21:00:00.001-07:00

Welcome to another edition of Fractured Fairytales, aka my take on some of the stories of the 2011 World Championships. This time around, a few tales (and a weak limerick or two) about the Men's event:

The Boy Who Couldn’t Count

Once there was a boy known to dazzle the crowds with his handsome jumps—most notably a triple axel delivered with the “softest” knees known to figure skating—and charm them with whimsical artistry and choreography. He won the Junior World Championships in 2005, and appeared to have won Nationals and be headed to the Winter Olympics one year later, when a strange thing happened: the judges discovered he’d done too many combination jumps in his Nationals free skate. When all was said and done, he did NOT win his Nationals, and had to settle for attending 2006 Worlds instead. Years went by, and although the boy grew to be a young man (and soon fathered a boy of his own), he still loved dazzling the crowds with his jumps SO much that he continued to do too many of them (in combination) at the most critical times. By the time he made the mistake yet again at 2011 Worlds, sending him from a 2nd place SP to a 7th place overall finish, his fans had an epiphany of sorts… realizing his tendency for soul-crushingly simple mistakes had been right there in his name all along…

ODA!
(As in Oh, DUH!)

Will he ever get it right, or will his fans simply learn to live with lowered expectations? Check in next year, when (maybe, just maybe) he’ll become a name dropper a la Cher or Usher, simply going by Nobunari.

The Skating Singer… or, The Skater Who Skated to Singing

Once upon a time there was a fun-loving young competitor by the name of Amodio who adored skating to up-tempo, contemporary music in even the most tense of competitions. And people were happy to watch him do so. Then one day the people watched him skate to a collection of music they thought he’d been skating to all season long… except this time they heard the strangest noises alongside it. What is that?? They wondered. It’s distracting! And their curiosity turned to shock as they realized “that??” was vocals, and “that??” was considered illegal in this particular world. Soon both the crowd became confused—still excited and happy for the young man, but with mounting frustration to counter such emotions. AMODIO! Some wished to bellow. What are you thinking? This is not an exhibition; it’s the biggest competition of the year! The judges will never forget this… and some of them may never forgive it either. For SHAME!

And Amodio’s fans became even more confused when his scores came up, and there was no mandatory deduction for the glaring vocal faux pas. (They would later learn that the judges put it to a vote, and the majority ruled against the deduction.) In any case, young Amodio went from 5th to 7th… well out of the placements to get an invite to skate, with vocals or without, at the Gala the next day.

“It’s too late to apologize…” was said to be heard from all parties involved…

The Once and Future Skating King

There once was a boy named Gachinski… and everywhere he went they simply… asked for one thing—skate as fine as The King—and he said (to himself) then this task, it will be.

(Editor’s note: Sorry, tried to make a limerick there but I had trouble rhyming much of anything relevant with “in-ski”.)

Here’s another way to put it: In Russia, there was an undisputed king of the figure skating world. Even when he was no longer commanding their attention on the ice, his likeness was often suspended multiple times in signs and banners around the arena. Nobody was more aware of this than 17 year-old Gachinski, a rising star who had The King’s coach, trained in The King’s old stomping grounds, and skated at a time when not one Russian man had come remotely close to The King’s success in several years of trying. It was now Gachinski’s turn to try. His earlier efforts in the international season had earned him decent marks—6th and 7th in his inaugural GP events, for instance—but they were far from remarkable. But then a series of strange and wonderful things happened for the lad… for just when he thought his “year” was over, he skated well enough at Europeans to receive an invite to Worlds. And then, just when it looked as if though Worlds would not be able to happen at all, it DID happen—in Gachinski’s hometown. And if that wasn’t enough, he managed to put together his two best performances of the year in front of that home crowd. No wonder they went wild when he earned himself a bronze medal, one of the biggest surprises of Worlds that year. And no wonder Gachinski felt aglow with pride when he realized The King was there, in the home crowd, cheering him on. In that moment at least, it seemed a torch had been passed.

And here’s one more quick one I have to work in…

The Odd Couple

When the one-time champ took a break
To fix a loose screw on his skate
The crowd watched a shot
Of Ottavio and Scott
Nearly steal the main dish off its plate

(Another limerick attempt… sorry, I just had to work something in about Scott Hamilton seen alongside Ottavio Cinquanta in the stands together… it was too weird!)

Worlds 2011 Recap: Fractured Fairytales, Pt.1

2011-05-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the so-called “human drama of athletic competition” results in storybook endings for what’s perceived as the most deserving participants. More often than not, though, they miss the mark. What I’m doing with the recent World Championships summaries is take a few stories from each discipline, and put my own little spin on them (including how they’ve turned out… for now). Starting with pairs this time…

PAIRS

The Princess and the Pancakes

Once upon a time there were two good pairs skating teams. One featured a strong and likeable guy known as Trankov, but he was paired with what appeared to the world to be a fragile princess… with whom he couldn’t find chemistry if he was stuck with her overnight in a laboratory. The other team sported a fine lady known as Volosozhar… but her partner Morozov, with whom she found some success both on and off the ice, tragically had the physical build of a stack of pancakes. Eventually Trankov left the princess behind, Morozov opted for retirement, and a new partnership was born…Volosozhar/Trankov, who, thankfully, are now helping explain the difference between good and great pairs skating teams.

The Accidental Bloodletter

There once was a lovely young lady named Duhamel who faced one teeny tiny problem with her pairs partners… she created emergencies at the damndest of times. With a fellow named Buntin, she famously sliced his hand into a bloody mess at a 2009 GP event when her skate blade came too close for comfort during their free skate. Then, upon Buntin’s retirement, she teamed up with a fellow known as Radford. With whom she even more famously broke his nose during the 2011 Worlds (during the triple twist in their SP). Will Radford run in fear once the swelling in his nose goes down? Tune in for next year’s thrilling sequel, The Man Who Got Stabbed in the Leg During a Throw Triple Lutz.

The American Dreamers

Once upon a time there was a U.S. pairs team who worked very hard to get as consistently good with their free skate as they typically were with their short program. One season they finally succeeded with this mission, became filled with promise for the future, and… oh, wait. Never mind.

Coming next time: the men’s wrapup!

Yankowskas/Coughlin: From "Congratulations" to "I'm Sorry" in Less Than A Week

2011-05-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

It's getting to where any U.S. pair that shows signs of success on the international front is about one press lift away from dissolution.

First we had McLaughlin/Brubaker, two-time National Champions who couldn't make the World team in its last two efforts, missed the Olympic team as well, and broke up a year ago. (Brubaker now skates with Mary Beth Marley.) Then we had Denney/Barrett, 3-time National medalists who won gold in 2010 and represented in Vancouver's Olympics... who split after their sub-par 2010-11 season a couple months ago. (Denney is reportedly looking for a new partner.)

And now, sadly, we can add Yankowskas/Coughlin to that list. A week ago, we were celebrating the fact that they turned in an impressive 6th place finish in the senior Worlds debut-- the best U.S. finish since Inoue/Baldwin reached 4th at the 2006 Worlds. Turns out it will be their only finish at a senior Worlds, as they announced the end of their partnership. Coughlin, age 25, is "weighing his future options" while Yankowskas (about to turn 21) is looking for a new partner.

The only pressing question I have right now is... why leave when the going is finally getting good? It appears that McBru and D/B fell apart when each team fell on relatively tough times. Au contraire, Yankcough easily had their best season ever, one that only improved as it progressed.

So frustrating, although we of course wish only the best for Yankcough in the future.

Worlds Wrap-up Still to Come

2011-05-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted more today, guys... all that Worlds-watching over the past few days got me way behind on my regular deadlines, so I'm trying to catch up in a big way!

I've definitely got more to say, though, and I'll get it written down as soon as I can. Stay tuned... and if there's something specific you'd like me to address, let me know. Thanks! More soon.

Worlds 2011 Ladies Final McNotes (longer version)

2011-04-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

OK, I guess it’s time for me to explain Meh for those of you who were baffled by my earlier post… or have been miles away from any skating coverage today.

Which requires another listing of the top finishers…

1) Ando (130.21/195.79)

She won, and she won fair and square. She won because she went out and did what she was capable of, which in her case is quite a lot. She’s not my favorite skater, but she’s very good, very consistent, and earned a great honor at a time when Japan could certainly use a lift—no matter how incidental.

2) Kim (128.59/194.50)

As tight as it was between she and Ando, she really needed to do all her elements for her artistic superiority to give her the win. But she popped the back end of a 3Sal combo, and then popped a triple flip. Game over.

3) Kostner (124.93/184.68)

She got her 3Flip back just in time to land one when she needed it most. That, along with 4 other triples (but still no lutz), coupled with one of her nicest long programs to date, equaled bronze for Kostner—the third world medal of her career.

4) Leonova (124.17/183.92)

Less than a point from the bronze was the redhead from Russia, slicking back most of the Annie-esque do today and nailing 6 triples in by far her best free skate of the season. Coming into today literally tied in the points with Kostner, Leonova out-elemented her by about 2 points… but Koster out-componented her by about 3 points. I know I just invented a couple of words there, but the 3-4-5 situation here left me rather frustrated…

5) Czisny (120.78/182.25)

See, it’s like this (at least on paper): Czisny fell on her first 3lutz, and although she skated the rest of her program with nary a hitch (and even got credit for the fallen lutz being fully rotated), it ultimately made the difference (to the judges at least) between 3^rd and 5^th. Me? I don’t think it should have been so close to begin with, simply because I think Czisny’s spins, technique and component skills exceed those of Leonova and Kostner. But it is what it is.

6) Asada (114.13/158.66)

Knock-knock. Who’s there? Triple axel. Triple axel who? Exactly. (Triple axel skulks away into the fog.)

That’s my way of saying Asada’s “signature jump” still isn’t back in all its glory. Throw in a few other errors, and you get a 6^th place finish for the former world champ.

7) Makarova (105.60/167.22)

Yes, she fell (hard!) on a 3Lo, but that wasn’t the problem as much as it was a lack of technical difficulty compared to her peers. The last to skate, her finish compounded the frustration that seemed to be felt by the mostly-Russian audience when Leonova was bumped off the podium, resulting in one of the most subdued-sounding post-event crowds I’ve ever heard. Or not heard, in this case.

The rest of these skaters I’m listing scores only, for I haven’t seen their performances yet in their entirety…

8) Murakami (105.60/167.22)

9) Korpi (109.71/164.80)

10) Gedevanishvili (104.63/156.24)

11) Hecken (103.10/155.83)

12) Flatt (97.39/154.61)

…Except for this one. I saw the whole thing, unfortunately, and heard too how Flatt indicated after the free skate that her “leg pain” (which apparently kept her 3lutz at bay in the SP) was actually a tibia stress fracture that was officially discovered only last Friday.

So I hate to have to throw this out there, especially since I know nothing about the pain of a stress fracture, but… with an injury as seemingly “un-sudden” as that, shouldn’t she have ceded her spot to alternate Mirai Nagasu a few weeks ago?

So there it was. No completely clean performances in the final group (so Alissa, at least you were in good company), several missed opportunities, frustration all around—for me, at least. Which brings me back to… meh.

And then Davis/White won the freakin’ World Gold a few hours later… and the Shib Sibs, the bronze… which changed the meh to my goodness, how awesome is that??

For a little while, anyway.

More on the ice dance finals coming soon!

2011 World Ladies Finals Super, Super-Short Analysis (aka McNotes)

2011-04-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

Ladies Final ended half an hour ago.

My take?

Meh.

More later.

2011 World Ice Dance SD McNotes

2011-04-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the top 10 finishers in the Short Dance, accompanied with a bit of know-nothing, “I just know what I like” commentary.

1) Virtue/Moir 74.29

Judy Blumberg (who was the analyst, I believe, during Universal’s coverage) thought they seemed slow, a little choppy, and were up on their toepicks too much. But their marks didn’t seem to show it much.

2) Davis/White 73.76

Blumberg also noted that Charlie didn’t catch his blade properly during the twizzles, but otherwise it was deemed their best yet of the season… though they, once again, landed just ½ a point behind. Grrrr.

3) Pechalat/Bourzat 70.97

Has anyone noticed their opening moves in the SD are very similar to this year’s FD (minus the “she’s blind” thing)? Great effort; glad they’re poised for a medal at last.

4) Shibutani/Shibutani 66.88

The awesome rookie season continues. In 4^thafter the SD on your first senior Worlds?? WHAT?

5) Bobrova/Soloviev 65.88

Here I was, waiting to hear their Tom Jones music and then I see they changed it at Europeans…

6) Ilinykh/Katsalapov 65.51

Did they change their SD music too? Blumberg found it “distracting” and I agree, though they had some nice moments in there.

7) Weaver/Poje 65.07

Last time I saw them they were having a bummer of an FD at 4 Continents. Glad to see them back in fine form. Less than a point separates them and the two Russian teams, you might have noticed.

8) Cappellini/Lanotte 64.12

In their case, Que sera sera (part of their SD music) means “you are in about the same spot as last year headed into your free dance.”

9) Chock/Zuerlein 61.47

Great senior Worlds debut so far! Can we keep all three U.S. teams in the top 10?? Stay tuned… (Samuelson/Bates really have their work cut out for them when they return.)

10) Crone/Porier 61.01

I told them to change this SD program, but did they listen?? And then she flubs the twizzles too. Egads.

The Dance Finals are up shortly… more on those later tonight…

2011 Worlds Ladies SP Results/McNotes

2011-04-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

I got out of bed, I watched (most of them), I posted… here are some quick notes on the Top 15:

1) Kim (65.91)

In her long-awaited return to competition, Kim skated beautifully to Giselle but fell out of her opening triple lutz, putting the combo elsewhere…and just barely out-scoring….

2) Ando (65.58)

Spot-on as always, now that she’s settled into this “Mission” program. 3lutz/2Loop was her combo.

3) Makarova (61.62)

Her clean SP included a 3T/3T, just barely out-scoring…

4) Czisny (61.47)

Clean short! Only error I could see was pitching forward on the 3F a little bit. Should have outscored Makarova, with whom she is very nearly tied for 3^rd.

5) Leonova (59.75)

With another new hairdo (this time looking like Little Orphan Annie with a more relaxed perm), she lit up the home crowd with a clean skate which included a 3T/3T.

6) Kostner (59.75)

Kostner fell on her triple flip, but is currently tied with Leonova… Leonova is placed higher because the higher tech. score gets the nod in an SP tie.

7) Asada (58.66)

One guess as to why she’s down here in 7^th… yep, blame that pesky triple axel. Asada’s 3ax landing was two-footed and, I’m guessing, possibly downgraded (anyone know for sure?)

8) Flatt (57.22)

No triple/triple here; her combo was a 3Flip/2Toe. But guess what? No triple lutz either… she doubled it (which required the knock-knock “oops-I-goofed” move right after the skate was over).

9) Korpi (55.09)

Maybe her horrific FS at Europeans was haunting Korpi, as she fell on the front end of her 3T/3T combo and never put the combo in elsewhere.

10) Murakami (54.86)

I missed this one, but judging from what I’ve seen of her crazy-packed “Jumping Jack” SP before, Murakami must’ve skated well below her average.

11) Meite (53.26)

Who? Why, that’s Mae-Bernice Meite of France, who skated cleanly and landed a 3T/3T.

12) Hecken (52.73)

I missed Hecken too, but I’m guessing she also skated clean and landed a 3T/3T (that’s the combo she did last year, anyway).

13) Phaneuf (52.62)

Apparently Phaneuf and Flatt were sipping from the same water fountain. She doubled her 3Lutz too. (And only does a 3Toe as her stand-alone triple.)

14) Lacoste (51.98)

With a clean skate which included a 3lutz and a 3Loop/2Loop, Canada’s fill-in for Myriane Sampson held her own at what I think is her first Worlds.

15) Gedevanishvili (51.61)

It looked like her triple lutz/double toe might have been 2-footed, and her 3Toe definitely was.

The big free skate showdown happens Saturday!

2011 Worlds Pairs FS McNotes

2011-04-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Top 11 summaries from the Pairs Final… yes, it’s a Top 11 so I can include both U.S. teams...

1) Savchenko/Szolkowy, GER (144.87/217.85 TOTAL) Solid as a rock. A taut, pony-tailed, neon-pink rock.

2) Volosozhar/Trankov, RUS (140.38/210.73 TOTAL) What a year for these two! May this team, in the future, provide something the Germans didn’t really have this year: an apples-to-apples run for their money.

3) Pang/Tong, CHN (130.12/204.12 TOTAL) I say “apples-to-apples” because I don’t really think of P/T in the same skating style… more lyrical, less dynamic. Unfortunately Tong wasn’t getting his jumps off well in the first part of the FS (popping an axel here, doubling a triple there), which hurt their technical score.

4) Kavaguti/Smirnov, RUS (124.82/187.36 TOTAL) Not a bad outing for them, but with a fall on the throw 3Loop and a double-3 exit on the throw 3sal, they couldn’t enter medal territory this year.

5) Bazarova/Larionov, RUS (122.49/187.13 TOTAL) BazaNova’s problem this year has been the opposite of Kav/Smir—well-managed throws, but weaknesses in the SBS jumps. It happened again here; he fell on one SBS pass, and she stumbled around on the other.

6) Yankowskas/Coughlin, USA (117.18/175.94 TOTAL) – They should be so very proud of themselves! Save for a hand down on the throw 3sal, it was a glorious performance for them. Great way to send off their “Ave Maria” tribute.

7) Duhamel/Radford, CAN (114.20/173.03 TOTAL)

8) Moore-Towers/Moscovitch, CAN (106.31/163.17 TOTAL)

I’m talking about the two Canadian teams at once because I have the same thing to say about both of them… stick around! There was lots of promise within your skating this year; in fact, you almost qualified 3 teams for next year’s Worlds. With Dube/Davison out of the picture, Canada needs you.

9) Takahashi/Tran, JPN (100.94/160.10 TOTAL)—two falls (one on the SBS jumps and one on the throws) kept T&T from building on their 6^th place SP finish.

10) Berton/Hotarek, ITA (99.52/157.15 TOTAL)—Only one in the top 10 I haven’t seen yet, but it sounds like they’re holding steady, finishing similarly to last year.

11) Evora/Ladwig, USA (101.27/155.91 TOTAL)—I came in as they were getting off the ice and heard their coach say “good fight”… never a good sign. I soon saw why via the replays reel: Ladwig’s wicked fall on the SBS 3Toes… Evora’s wipeout on the throw 3Flip… a hot mess of an SBS 2ax combo… aye carumba! Too bad.

2011 Worlds-- Men's FS McNotes

2011-04-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Men’s FINAL (Top 15)

Some very quick summaries, and sorry to say I haven’t studied the protocols yet so feel free to correct/confirm anything I put out here… sorry I couldn’t get this up sooner!

1) Chan, CAN (187.96/280.98 TOTAL)—not as perfect as Canadian Nationals, but still very well-deserved.

2) Kozuka, JPN (180.79/258.41 TOTAL)—he’s laid down a couple of spot-on beautiful free skates this season, and this was definitely one of them. Sooo excited to see him medal.

3) Gachinski, RUS (163.52/241.86 TOTAL)—OK, raise your hand if you’d guessed this teenager for bronze—or anywhere near the podium, for that matter. But admittedly he earned it.

4) Brezina, CZE (156.11/233.61 TOTAL)—I came in while this was in progress… did I see Brezina land TWO quads? (I know I saw him fall TWO times later on… probably stamina-related, with him barely competing this year.)

5) Takahashi, JPN (152.72/232.97 TOTAL)—At 4CC’s, Mark Ladwig suffered a boot malfunction that nearly took him and Amanda Evora out of competition. Here, Dice-K suffered a boot/blade malfunction (looked like the screws holding them together fell out or broke??) that nearly took him out of the event… and no better time to find this out, of course, than when you’re launching into a quad. He finished, but it was far from his best.

6) Oda, JPN (150.69/232.50 TOTAL)—At first I was thinking this was Oda’s best Worlds free skate to date… then I saw the scores and realized that must’ve been a triple/triple at the start, not a quad/triple like I thought. It wasn’t that he did badly… it’s that he didn’t do enough.

7) Amodio, FRA (152.04/229.68 TOTAL)—The last skater of the night was probably looking for a lot of whoopin’ and hollering by the time he got to the last couple minutes of his program. Instead he got a lot of distracted people wondering to themselves “Why on earth did he put vocals in his competitive free skate??”

8) Joubert, FRA (156.38/227.67 TOTAL)—Got a nice quad in, and stayed upright in general, but he was too far back for it to do him much good.

9) Dornbush, USA (151.88/222.42 TOTAL)—As with Nationals, he turned in a great, clean, everything-but-a-quad kind of performance to Sherlock Holmes. Probably never guessed he’d be the best-finishing American at this event when he was still competing Juniors just a handful of months ago!

10) Fernandez, SPAIN (149.10/218.26 TOTAL)—One of only two on this list that I haven’t seen yet. He skated very early, but apparently did pretty well with his Pirates program. When was the last time Spain had a guy in the top 10? Nice going, Javier!

11) Miner, USA (147.53/217.93)—I underestimated you, Mr. Miner… just slightly less content than Dornbush, but every bit as clean. I shall remember this going forward J

12) Verner, CZE (140.93/216.87 TOTAL)—This is the other one I missed. He was smiling big as I came in and saw him leaving the ice, but I guess that wasn’t representative of the skate. Too bad; he was having a pretty good comeback year and I was hoping he’d make the top 6.

13) Bradley, USA (142.26/212.71 TOTAL)-- Perhaps I overestimated Mr. Bradley. It was a flawed free skate for sure, but maybe, given all that’s transpired between January 2010 and now, 13^th at Worlds is truly the best he can do.

14) Ten, KAZ (138.99/209.99 TOTAL)—Unfortunately, Denis Ten couldn’t hold onto the promise of his SP. Two wipeouts on two 3ax attempts did him in.

15) Liebers, GER (137.86/205.59 TOTAL)—Turns out Dornbush wasn’t the only guy here with a Sherlock Holmes free skate. In my opinion Liebers paled by comparison, but it was still a good clean effort that deserved to be rewarded.

2011 Worlds-- Pairs SP McNotes

2011-04-27T13:26:00.001-07:00

Quick update for those who can't watch live, and/or want to comment on the Pairs SP:

The Top 12 are as follows:

1) Pang/Tong 74.00 (Didn't see it yet but it sounds like their best performance of this all season)

2) Savchenko/Szolkowy 72.98 (Didn't see this yet)

3) Volosozhar/Trankov 70.35 (Dang, they did it again... just as strong as they were at Russians.)

4) Bazarova/Larionov 64.64 (Didn't see this yet)

5) Kavaguti/Smirnov 62.54 (They looked pretty good throughout, but Smirnov had a weird fall on a non-element that disrupted things for a couple moments)

6) Takahashi/Tran 59.16 (skated clean and brought a throw 3lutz I think?)

7) Duhamel/Radford 58.83 (unfortunately, the "highlight" of their pretty-good program was a bloody nose Radford endured during their triple twist...)

8) Yankowskas/Coughlin 58.76 (she had a step out on the SBS triple toe; he was yet another one who had a weird fall on a non-element. They'd be in at least 6th without the fall.)

9) Berton/Hotarek 57.63 (Didn't see yet)

10) Moore-Towers/Moscovitch 56.86 (Didn't see yet)

11) Evora/Ladwig 54.64 (Amanda went down on the SBS 3T)

12) Hausch/Wende 53.90 (Didn't see yet)

More to come, bright and early tomorrow morning (eastern time)!

Men's SP McNotes (contains spoilers)

2011-04-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Quick update for those who can't watch live, and/or want to comment on the Men's SP:

The top 15 is as follows...

1) Chan 93.02 (still inflated I believe, but he was indeed outstanding... and with a 12-point lead I think he's got this one, if you know what I mean)

2) Oda 81.81 (Fell out of 4Toe and had a stumble on his FW; in my opinion he was overmarked)

3) Takahashi 80.25 (no quad but a clean skate; IMO he was undermarked)

4) Gachinski 78.34 (nice home-country surprise; this was almost entirely on the strength of his 4T/3T... he was the only one to do it besides Chan)

5) Amodio 77.64 (no quad, as usual, but a good clean skate)

6) Kozuka 77.62 (in a virtual dead heat w/Amodio, despite putting both hands down on his 3axel

7) Brezina 77.50 (almost tied for 5th as well; no quad, clean outing for him)

8) Verner 75.94 (fell on 4T attempt, unfortunately)

9) Joubert 71.29 (Fell out of his 4T and DID NOT PUT A COMBO IN ANYWHERE ELSE, which is why I think he was wildly overmarked.)

10) Ten 71.00 (glad to see he finally did pretty well, but he was on too early for me to see)

11) Dornbush 70.54 (too early for me to see as well, but I hear he was clean)

12) Bradley 70.45 (another clean skate including a 4T/2T; looked fully rotated to me but haven't heard officially...)

13) Miner 70.40 (That's right, the U.S. guys are all within .14 of each other!!)

14) Fernandez 69.16 (Pretty good, but stepped out of the back end of his 3/3 combo)

15) Van Der Perren 68.34 (Fell on his 4T attempt, which doesn't leave a lot to fall back on, so to speak,for VDP)

Two surprises that did NOT qualify for the FS: Sweden's Adrian Schultheiss (25th, with two falls), and Austria's Viktor Pfeifer (26th).

Pairs SP coming shortly!

Psst... One More Way to Watch Worlds (for Free!)

2011-04-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

If you're like me-- meaning, you're planning to catch Worlds online and have NOT yet paid the necessary subscription fee to Universal Sports or IceNetwork (because procrastination is your strong suit), read on...

Vlad, the ubertalent behind the World Figure Skating blog, has set up a page full of links to FREE, live coverage via Russian TV. If you're OK with Russian graphics and commentary-- or, perhaps, prefer it no matter what language you speak!-- you might want to give it a try. Check out the page here!!

I'll be doing so tomorrow morning... and will report back if I encounter any problems and need to go find my credit card instead. Happy viewing all... and thank you Vlad!!

2011 Worlds Predictions (Ladies Edition)

2011-04-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

Is the Ladies’ event at Worlds still the headliner above all other disciplines?

It is when Kim Yu-Na competes in it.

Right about now, the decision to keep Kim out of international competition all season looks like a great one. When it was first announced, some of us wondered if she’d really come back to competition… or if the announcement was the prelude to A Break, a la Weir, Rochette, and Lysacek.

It wasn’t. Kim is rehearsed (see this practice Clip of the Day of her Giselle SP) and appears ready to reclaim the World title… pretty exciting stuff for skating fans, and the additional month-long delay has likely built up the anticipation. Will she prevail? I think she will…

Gold—Kim Yu-Na (S. KOR)

Silver—Miki Ando (JPN)

Bronze—Mao Asada (JPN)

True, it’s been a year since she faced any competitive pressure… but it’s hard to think of someone who successfully fended off the Olympic albatross pressure cooker coming to Worlds a year later and quivering much about it. Even if her performances are sub-par, there’s a good chance she’ll come out on top (if the “winning” performances of others earlier in the season are any indication). And if, by chance, she doesn’t regain the title she last had in 2009? A simple shrug, a statement of “Maybe taking most of the season off wasn’t such a great idea,” and a firm resolve to compete for at least one more year should do the trick. (I’m only sort of kidding.)

As for silver and bronze, here’s the thing: I’m not crazy about the idea of Ando winning much of anything, but technically speaking, she’s an excellent athlete who has had a very good year (GP Final notwithstanding). If she skates well, a return to the Worlds podium would be a worthy reward. And then there’s Asada, an excellent athlete and artist who has had a pretty dreadful year competitively speaking. The complete results to her “rebuilding the jumps from scratch” approach remain to be seen, but I’m willing to bet she’ll skate well enough for bronze this week.**

** I believe Alissa Czisny could medal here. I really do. But in studying my predictions from earlier in the season, it appears that she’s done her best work when I underestimated her. So—Skate Gods, avert your eyes—I’m “underestimating” her, just in case, and hoping she a) doesn’t put too much pressure on herself, and b) skates to her own satisfaction.

A Top Five finish for one U.S. lady and a Top Eight finish for the other would be a joy, as it would give us three spots for next year’s Worlds. And it happens to be quite do-able this year. So that’s my official prediction for Czisny and Rachael Flatt.

And if anyone cares, the rest of my guess for the Top 10 consists of (in no particular order) Carolina Kostner, Kanako Murakami, Kiira Korpi, one of the two Helgessons (Joshi or Viktoria), and one of the two Russians (Makarova or Leonova). But if Cynthia Phaneuf takes it upon herself to sneak back in there, that would be just fine with me.

Questions? Comments?

Let’s go watch some skating :-)

2011 Worlds Predictions: Ice Dance

2011-04-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Previously on World Figure Skating Championships, Ice Dance division…

A Canadian team took the world (and Olympics) by storm, only to find itself hindered by injury the following season. During its hiatus, an American runner-up team won everything in sight, presumably hungry as ever to shake off silver and become the first U.S. gold medalists EVER in ice dance. And a French team (off the Olympic podium altogether) assembled arguably the most engaging free dance of the year, claiming a couple titles to call their own… and wondering if they could, perhaps, pull the upset come springtime.

Who will win??? Here’s my take:

Gold—Virtue/Moir (CAN)

Silver—Davis/White (USA)

Bronze—Pechalat/Bourzat (FRA)

I haven’t seen any more of Virtue/Moir’s programs this year than you probably have (meaning that which they completed at Four Continents). But, like Kim Yu-Na over in the Ladies event, they have two huge advantages on their side: 1) The promised potential of excellence, and 2) the deep anticipation to see such potential (even moreso with Worlds being delayed). No, they don’t have much mileage on either program—and if 4CC’s counts, the “mileage” isn’t particularly solid. But they’ve proven they can rise to the occasion before, and I think they’ll do it again.

In all honesty, I hate saying that because I would LOVE to see Davis/White take this thing. My relatively untrained eye thinks they are just as deserving, and I’m a little concerned that if they don’t win this year or next, they’ll never get it done (especially with the likes of the Shib Sibs closing in on their success). But their tango FD, while 16 shades of difficult that are incredibly well-executed, seems a little too introspective to put D/W on top. Have they been able to shake something new into it since we last saw them skate it in February? I certainly don’t mind watching to find out.

As for Pechalat/Bourzat, I don’t think they’ll defeat the top North American teams. But all things being equal, I think they’re a lock for their first-ever world bronze—especially with the Kerrs (sigh) and 2010 Bronze Medalists Faiella/Scali out of the running. Their biggest competition now looks to be Bobrova/Soloviev (RUS), and possibly Crone/Poirer (CAN)—but if C/P are still retaining their short dance to “Fallin’” (from earlier in the season), forget it.

And I didn’t forget about the rest of the North Americans! I think Canada’s Weaver/Poje and USA’s Shibutanis should make it into the top 10 pretty easily, and USA’s Chock/Zuerlein has a shot at it as well—though some of those placements will likely ride on whether or not Hoffmann/Zavosin compete (Hoffmann was hospitalized recently while training in Russia). Does anyone know if they’ve withdrawn or not?

Ladies’ predictions tomorrow! By the way, qualification rounds started today in Moscow; check www.isu.org if you’re interested in the results.