I thought I would keep everyone updated on what's going to be coming up over the next few weeks on Ice Addiction:
A round-up of the World Championships - who's attending, who the hot medal hopes are, and who might surprise us.
Looking Back - a series of articles looking back over the career of those skaters who have either already retired post-Olympics or who are looking to retire at the end of the season. I'll be looking back at their best performances, their highest-placed programs and their most memorable moments, on and off the ice. I'll also be looking back over the last season overall.
Dancing With The Stars round-ups - two skaters who won't be heading to Saitama for the Worlds are Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who are instead competing again each other on Dancing With The Stars! I'll be keeping you all updated with their progress (my money's on Meryl!)
Program of the Day - because sometimes you just need to take five minutes out of your day to watch some figure skating.
And much more! Any suggestions are always welcome - either comment below or tweet me at @theiceaddiction.
Today's post is a message to all skating fans - check out The Skating Lesson! If you haven't heard of The Skating Lesson already, it's a joint venture between Jenny Kirk (former World Junior Champion) and David Lease (a.k.a. Aunt Joyce) who are aiming to promote figure skating through online content. Originally starting out making podcasts, the pair now interview huge names from the skating world and upload the resulting video to YouTube for our viewing pleasure.
Below are some of my favourite interviews thus far.
Mary Beth Marley: The most recent interview by the pair is with Mary Beth Marley, who took up pairs skating to compete with Rockne Brubaker and, despite strong results, ended up quitting the sport. Her interview is incredibly detailed, candid and revealing. She also filmed a 'Day in the Life' video that's worth watching.
Frank Caroll: Frank Caroll is an absolute figure skating legend. Enough said!
Has anyone seen how Sasha Cohen has now added another string to her bow and become an entrepreneur? As if she wasn't talented enough already! In honour of her Snoxx Kickstarter campaign (socks with little poppers to hold them together, genius!), my lomg-awaited program of the day is her best short ever, in my opinion. Embedding wasn't possible but have a look here (2004 Worlds SP).
Today's post coincides with a(nother) skating comeback, in the form of Johnny Weir! Johnny announced yesterday that he is to return to competitive skating, with the intention of competing at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Weir's last competition was Vancouver, where he placed sixth. Lynn Rutherford for Ice Network reported from Johnny's press conference, where Weir said:
"I don't expect to come back immediately. It's going to be a slow process and a beautiful progression, hopefully, to come back as a national champion and a world medalist. Those are off in the distance. I don't expect instantaneous results. I expect hard work this summer."
"I'll be training all of my jumps, and luckily I can still do my triples through the Axel, but Galina has already warned me [I have to] work on the quad and be a real threat. I want to show up and be competitive and have people actually take this seriously. This isn't a publicity stunt; this isn't anything other than a return to competitive figure skating."
So how do you think Johnny will fair? With Plushenko also returning to competition at next week's European Championships, it seems to be the age of the comeback. Evan Lysacek has also been making noise about skating again but with an Olympic Gold under his belt it seems like a futile return if it happens (financial disagreements have hampered a return so far). Johnny, however, has something to prove and I feel he could again be a National champion and World medalist. Regardless of how he places in the future it'll be great to see his innovative and unique skating again!
Program of the Day is Weir's last short program 'I Love You, I Hate You' from Vancouver, and it's an amazing performance - the last step sequence especially is just full of classic Johnny sass. I can't wait to see what he comes up with for the 2012-2013 season. For now, those of you in the US can check out Weir commentating at the US National Championships next week.
So the first few days of 2012 have been spent finding out what each skater's New Year's Resolutions are.
Patrick Chan - Attend the 'Learn to Talk to the Media without Putting Your Foot in your Mouth' seminar as per my federation's 'suggestion'.
Scott Moir - Ditto.
Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat - To continue to have as much fun as we were having when this video was taken. (Ed Note: Click it. It's adorable.)
Brian Joubert - I do not make resolutions as that involves looking forward, and I only ever look back. You all love my return to The Matrix program, non?
Okay, so they might not be real....but Ice Network posted a few proper skating resolutions in this article:
Meryl Davis: My goal is to stop worrying about things that are out of my control and enjoy every day with my friends, family and truly blessed life!
Mark Ladwig: I would like to pay off more debt in the New Year! I got into debt becoming a better skater over the past 10 years. Last year, my goal was not to go deeper in debt, and I succeeded. This year's resolution is to get back to being in the black!
Ashley Wagner: My resolution was to make time for more happy and special moments in my life, since I'm always so stressed!
Michal Brezina: I just want to stay healthy for the rest of the season and for the next one, too! And I'll do all my best for it.
Agnes Zawadzki: I just don't want to have any regrets this year and go for everything that comes my way.
Parker Pennington: My resolution is to spend more time trying to help skating grow.
Evan Bates: I need to clean my room!!!! Ahhhhhh, it's bad.
Gracie Gold: My New Year's resolution was to try to live more in the sunshine and less with the shadows, and to read every novel on the New York Times best-seller list.
Jeremy Abbott: My resolution this year is to make resolutions that I actually keep.
Melisssa Gregory and Denis Petukhov: 1. To go somewhere this year that we have never been. 2. Conquer a new challenge.
Sean Rabbitt: My New Year's resolution is to give back to my community even more than this last year (which might be hard to top after Skaters Care!). I would also like to get better at speaking, reading and writing Japanese, and lastly get to meet lots of new people and make many new friends!
Emily Hughes: I didn't make one this year. I had such a great 2011 -- skating in some shows, graduating and getting a job -- I just want to continue on this path.
Daisuke Murakami: My New Year's resolution is for the people who have supported me through skating to have health and happiness, and also having two quads in my free program for the new year.
Lucinda Ruh: My New Year's resolution is to be a good mother, since I am pregnant with twins! And to continue to inspire people with my book, Frozen Teardrop.
Jeremy Ten: I think after everything that I went through in 2011 and even in 2010, this year in 2012 is all about loving skating and showing that to the world more than ever. It was almost taken away from me, so I hang on to it that much more everyday.
Ryan Bradley: My resolution this year is to spend more time at home with my family.
Piper Gilles: I need to stop biting my nails.
Other skating bloggers have also made New Year's Resolutions, including Xanboni and Ice Charades so check them out!
My New Year's Resolutions, skating-wise, are to post more on Ice Addiction! Life keeps getting in the way but I resolve to post at least every Friday, so if you check back on Ice Addiction every Friday there will be a new post. There's a lot to look forward to in 2012!
Just wanted to stay a very quick 'Happy New Year' to all you lovely ice addicts out there! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great new year this evening. I also hope that 2012 is filled with health, happiness and, most importantly, skating!
Just a quick note to check on here. So I haven't caught much of the Grand Prix season so far unfortunately (I don't have Eurosport on my TV at uni and I do have a lot of work to do sadly!) so I'm not really going to comment on what I've missed. Next week I am working at the British Championships so will get to see a lot of the practices and a little of the competition then, so if I see anything/anyone note-worthy I'll mention it here! I also went to my briefing for my role as a volunteer at the 2011 Europeans - it was extremely exciting and suddenly all felt very "real" but they still haven't let me know what my role is yet! I'm hoping Brian Joubert's personal assistant...hey a girl can dream! There will be a LOT of blogging from me when it gets to the end of January (especially as my volunteers accreditation gets me free access to all the practices!) so stay tuned for that. Hope you're all enjoying the Grand Prix season!
...you realise you haven't posted on your blog in forever! I've been having a bit of a break over the off-season but receiving a couple of emails about my blog in the last week which reminded me that there still might be some readers out there waiting for new posts! I'm so excited for to the 2011-2012 season, and there is so much to look forward to.
This year I am not attending Trophee Eric Bompard for the first time in three years....BUT I have been confirmed as a volunteer for the 2012 Europeans (eek!) which, this year, are in SHEFFIELD! (a.k.a my university town!). I'm really excited and will definitely be chronicling my experiences of volunteering at a major skating event here on Ice Addiction.
Anyway, to the off-season. The off-season has, unfortunately, been categorised by me for the number of partnerships which have ended, due to retirement, injury or personal problems. The worst offender seems to be North America, which includes Caydee Denney / Jeremy Barrett and Vanessa Crone / Paul Poirer, Madison Chock / Greg Zuerlein, Emily Samuelson / Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell / Keiffer Hubbell. This season the pairs and dance events are going to be looking very different in terms of line-up - anyone else predicting Shpilband&Zoueva dominance at US Nationals and Worlds again?
Therefore, my program of the day is in memorandum of one of my favourite pairs team - Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison (2003-2010). There have been a number of internet rumours and drama about why this partnership broke up, but essentially it seems that Bryce's injuries are serious enough that they have put his future skating career in serious jeopardy. Jessica is now skating with Sébastien Wolfe, and they have been confirmed for Skate Canada. The entire list of Canadian skaters who will be participating in Skate Canada in Mississauga, Ontario can be found here. Program of the Day is their bronze medal-winning performance from the 2008 World Championships to Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter". All videos of this LP have been disabled from embedding by request (boo!) but it can be watched here.
Results results results! What a mixed bag of performances...if anyone put Artur Gachinski as their bronze medal prediction I will be very surprised.
1. Patrick Chan 280.98
What a skate - beautiful, nuanced interpretation of Phantom. Plus those quads look like triples...and that is a good thing!
2. Takahiko Kozuka 258.41
Also a great skate from Kozuka, so solid on his jumps and a well-deserved bronze medal.
3. Artur Gachinski 241.86
Gachinski totally dark-horsed this one, but anyone else just see him as baby Plushenko? Needs his own identity, which I think should start with a haircut!
4. Michal Brezina 233.61
Two quads and two falls - you don't see that very often. Definitely time to retire that "An American in Paris" routine though.
5. Daisuke Takahashi 232.97
Oh, Daisuke....boot problems are so harsh. Definitely should have been allowed to start from the beginning, and he skated very well considering the disruption.
6. Nobunari Oda 232.50
Oda's performance was pretty good, but an extra triple toe that wasn't allowed made him drop in places.
7. Florent Amodio 229.68
Florent used the lyrical version of his program, but was not given the mark deduction which is usually reserved for doing so. Breaking the rules seems uncalled for, but then it does fit with his skating style, which often seems confident to the point of cocky. It wasn't his best skate, jump-wise, but it is SUCH a great program, especially for the audience.
8. Brian Joubert 227.67
Brian Brian Brian. So proud of him for hitting a clean free skate, but sadly wasn't enough for a medal place for the sixth consecutive year. Maybe next year in Nice? Or maybe not.
That's all I got to see (due to Eurosport absolutely "snooker-ing" us) but the rest of the results are below. What did you think of the competition?
9. Richard Dornbush 222.42
10. Javier Fernandez 218.26
11. Ross Miner 217.93
12. Tomas Verner 216.87
13. Ryan Bradley 212.71
14. Denis Ten 209.99
15. Peter Liebers 205.59
16. Anton Kovalevski 201.64
17. Kevin van der Perren 197.10
18. Samuel Contesti 196.40
19. Jorik Hendrickx 188.24
20. Kevin Reynolds 187.23
21. Paolo Bacchini 183.13
22. Nan Song 176.09
23. Kim Lucine 171.93
24. Joey Russell 168.73
Also here are some post-free skate interviews from the top placers, courtesy of Universal Sports. Not particularly insightful, but definitely worth a watch.
So despite my promises of live-tweeting, it turns out that British Eurosport decided only to show the top three performances - how disappointing! Still, here's some commentary and video for the top nine skaters (i.e all I could find on Youtube.)
1. Patrick CHAN - 93.02
Sandra Bezic recently tweeted that you don't "get" Patrick Chan until you see him live, and this is something I would absolutely agree with. His ease of movement, and flow across the ice, is just amazing when seen in person and is not really fully captured on tv. He achieved a world record score with this performance - fantastic. Having said that, to me it's not the most exciting program, in terms of music, but is still performed magically. I think I'll call it now that he has enough of a lead to take this.
2. Nobunari ODA - 81.81
A few stumbles and mistakes makes me think he was lucky to edge out Takahashi on this one - but can he hold it in the FS? Such a gorgeous triple axel on its own though - Oda has a knee bend on the landing of his jumps that is to die for.
3. Daisuke TAKAHASHI - 80.25
Loved loved loved this - this program absolutely plays to his strengths and is just so fun! Again, I question his positioning, behind Oda and so far behind Patrick Chan...hmm.
4. Artur GACHINSKI - 78.34
I'll leave this comment to John Kerr who posted on his Facebook - "who the hell is Artur Gachinski's choreographer!?! Talented kid but the routine is pile of crap!" Loved the use of Pink Floyd though - gave me Virtue and Moir/Delobel and Schoenfelder flashbacks!
5. Florent AMODIO - 77.64
Think Amodio could definitely move up over Gachinski on the long, since he has a really fun yet very consistantly well-performed long program. It was a nice performance, with a great opening jump sequence.
6. Takahiko KOZUKA - 77.62
Kozuka's second performance of this competition so far - due to weird ISU rules he had to skate in the preliminary qualifying round. Kozuka also has gorgeous fluidity on the ice, and a great audience-friendly program, but a botched triple axel landing left him out of medal spots. But I definitely wouldn't rule out a medal just yet.
7. Michal BREZINA - 77.50
I have been a huge fan of Brezina for ages as he has amazingly high jumps, but they weren't quite on today. But with only one point between him and fourth place (him, Kozuka and Amodio are so tight) there's bound to be a lot of movement tomorrow.
8. Tomas VERNER - 75.94
Tomas's program is so light and fun - but a fall on the quad, not so much.
9. Brian JOUBERT - 71.29
Joubert has been on the podium here for the last five years - pretty impressive considering how inconsistent he's been over the past half a decade. However, with performances like this he's never going to retain his world title - he recovered from his opening mistake well but he's twenty points behind Chan, ouch.
And the rest of the results are below (I.E Youtube is letting me down so cannot see the rest of the programs) The skaters below who are in bold advanced to the free skate tomorrow - commiserations to the others.
10. DENIS TEN - 71.00
11. Richard DORNBUSH - 70.54
12. Ryan BRADLEY - 70.45
13. Ross MINER - 70.40
14. Javier FERNANDEZ - 69.16
15. Kevin VAN DER PERREN - 68.34
16. Peter LIEBERS - 67.73
17. Anton KOVALEVSKI - 65.16
18. Samuel CONTESTI - 64.59
19. Kevin REYNOLDS - 64.36
20. Nan SONG - 63.78
21. Joey RUSSELL - 61.69
22. Jorik HENDRICKX - 60.74
23. Paolo BACCHINI - 58.96
24. Kim LUCINE MON - 58.81
25. Adrian SCHULTHEISS - 58.41
26. Viktor PFEIFER - 56.68
27. Min-Seok KIM - 56.19
28. Alexander MAJOROV - 54.24
29. Maxim SHIPOV - 50.10
30. Misha GE - 49.61
And here are the pairs result - I have yet to find any performances on Youtube yet. However I have to say my favourite skate was Volosozhar and Trankov's. They absolutely lived up to the hype, such a perfect match for partners, and he looks so much happier than he was when skating with Maria Mukhortova! Both Savchenko/Szolkowy and Pang/Tong were sublime - tomorrow is going to be close. Major props also go to Eric Radford - he and Meagan did a great job for their first international outing together, made even more impressive by how he skated the majority of the program with a broken nose due to an ill-placed elbow during the opening triple twist! Commiserations also go to Kemp and King; being British I always cheer them on, but just missing out on qualifying for the free skate must be devastating. Below are those who qualified.
So this week marks the start of the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships, now held in Moscow instead of Nagano after the devastating events in Japan. So who are the contenders to watch?
Mens
Reigning Champion: Daisuke Takahashi
Forerunner for Gold: Patrick Chan
Potential Challengers: Amodio, Kozuka, Takahashi, Joubert, Brezina
Patrick Chan is definitely the main contender for this event - his performance at Canadian Nationals included a quad toeloop in his short and TWO quad toes in his long, and he's going to want to match that in Moscow. However, I suspect his competition will come from the 2014 kids, Florent Amodio and Michel Brezina, who have a history of consistency in competition that Chan does not. Brian Joubert, Takahiko Kozuka and reigning gold medalist Daisuke Takahashi will also be trying to take the gold. The mens event is undoubtedly one of the most exciting of the whole competition as it is notoriously hard to predict, especially with such a deep field.
Pairs
Reigning Champion: Qing Pang and Jian Tong
Forerunners for Gold: Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy
Potential Challengers: Pang/Tong, Volosozhar/Trankov, Basarova/Larionov
The pairs event seems to be a two-horse race between Pang and Tong and Savchenko and Szolkowy. The Germans won at the recent Grand Prix Final by over 20 points; however, their lack of jumping consistency may be their downfall. The Russian team will also be the main challengers hoping to take a home gold - both Basarova/Larinov and Kavaguti/Smirnov have a good chance, but all eyes will be on Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov. It'll be interesting to see if their gamble in partner-swapping paid off - their sizable win at their only competition so far, the Mont Blanc Trophy, seems to suggest so!
Ladies
Reigning Champion: Mao Asada
Forerunner for Gold: Yu-na Kim (?)
Potential Challengers: Asada, Csizny, Kostner, Ando, Flatt, Murakami
This ladies event marks Yu-na Kim's return to competition after her gold medal win in Vancouver, but how will she fare after a whole season out and a messy split from coach Brian Orser? Mao Asada has had a very mixed season but she's been known to pull a winning performance out when it's been least expected, so she might take a surprise gold. Also hoping for a medal will be Alissa Csizny, riding high on her Grand Prix Final win, and her teammate Rachael Flatt, as well as Japan's Miki Ando and Kanako Murakami.
Ice Dance
Reigning Champion: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
Forerunner for Gold: Virtue/Moir
Potential Challengers: Davis/White, Pechalat/Bourzat
This is also a event which marks a return to competition; it is Virtue and Moir's first full competition of the season, as they were forced to withdraw from both Grand Prix assignments, Canadian Nationals and the long program of Four Continents due to Virtue's injury struggles. It'll be interesting to see if Davis and White have managed to leapfrog over their training mates due to their extra practice time - after all, they've always been a very close second! Pechalat and Bourzat will also be fighting for a medal, fresh after their huge win at Europeans.
So that's my predictions/round-up - who are your picks? Also I've posted the dates and times of each event below - enjoy! I'll also be blogging about each event and live-tweeting.
Today's Program of the Day comes courtesy of Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett, who announced the end of their partnership last week. Jeremy appears to be retiring and plans to skate in shows and coach, whilst Caydee is looking for a new partner. They were a very consistant couple, who had make leaps and bounds in terms of progress in the last two seasons, and so will be missed. The Program of the Day is their short program to Stravinsky's "The Firebird" from US Nationals 2010, where they took the gold medal.
Because I think it's a good thing to take a couple of minutes out of your busy day to just relax and watch some high-quality skating!
Today's program comes courtesy of the Europeans, which I'll be looking back on between now and the start of Worlds later this month.
The Europeans were in Bern, Switzerland, and the home-nation hopeful was Sarah Meier. Despite two consecutive silver medals in this event in 2007 and 2008, Meier has struggled with both inconsistancy and injury and was by no means favourite to take the gold at this event. Her gorgeous free skate, land subsequent home win, was Meier's last ever competition. She called it "the perfect ending", and after watching it you'll have to agree. Her reaction at the end of the program and in the Kiss and Cry is unbelievably emotional and moving, and one of the best moments of a European championships that was somewhat lackluster in other areas. Enjoy!
