Ice Addiction

Here's Johnny!

2012-01-20T11:24:00.000Z

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.

Friday's Program of the Day

2012-01-13T19:20:00.001Z

Today's Program of the Day is Daisuke Takahashi's short program this season.

I absolutely love this program but my question is - is it going to be enough to topple the mighty Chan at Worlds?

New Year's Resolutions, Skating-Style

2012-01-06T15:49:00.000Z

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!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T16:33:00.000Z

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!

The Grand Prix Season So Far

2011-11-22T13:25:00.000Z

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!

The awkward moment when...

2011-09-06T21:08:00.000+01:00

...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.

Lyrics and loose screws - the World mens freeskate

2011-04-28T20:07:00.000+01:00

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.

World Championships - Men and Pairs

2011-04-27T22:41:00.005+01:00

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.

1. Pang/Tong 74.00
2. Savchenko/Szolkowy 72.98
3. Volosozhar/Trankov 70.35
4. Bazarova/Larionov 64.64
5. Kavaguti/Smirnov 62.54
6. Takahashi/Tran 59.16
7. Duhamel/Radford 58.83
8. Yankowskas/Coughlin 58.76
9. Berton/Hotarek 57.63
10. Moore-Towers/Moscovitch 56.86
11. Evora/Ladwig 54.64
12. Hausch/Wende 53.90
13. Zhang/Wang 52.25
14. Dong/Wu 49.29
15. Kadelcova/Bidar 45.20
16. Zabijako/Kulbach 44.35

Preview - World Championships

2011-04-24T21:48:00.000+01:00

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.

World Championships (Moscow Times)

Monday, April 25
14:00 Qualification round: Men

Tuesday, April 26
12:00 Qualification round: Ice dancing
15:30 Qualification round: Ladies

Wednesday, April 27
13:00 Men's short program
18:30 Pairs short program

Thursday, April 28
13:30 Men's free skating
18:30 Pairs free skating

Friday, April 29
13:30 Ladies short program
18:30 Short dance

Saturday, April 30
13:30 Ladies' free skating
18:30 Free dance

Sunday, May 1
14:00 Exhibition

Program of the Day

2011-03-04T22:02:00.001Z

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.

Program of the Day

2011-03-03T18:21:00.001Z

Today's POTD needs no introduction - sit back and enjoy the most iconic skating performance ever.

Program of the Day

2011-03-02T15:28:00.003Z

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!

Ones To Watch - Russian Royalty

2010-12-31T16:08:00.001Z

Yes, Ice Addiction is back, and diving straight in with comments on Russian Nationals - most specifically Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who had such a great debut at Russian Nationals it was absolutely a case of "Maria who?" - Maxim's last unhappy skating union is well and truly over! I felt Volosozhar's skating ability was on a par with Aliona Savchenko but she never the partner to show this of, but as their trouncing of Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov (214.66 to 201.44 as final scores) at Nationals shows, there is going to be a very interesting showdown for the pairs medals in Europeans in a few short weeks. See what you think of their short program below!

Oh and any comments on an Ice Addiction revamp, criticisms, ideas etc, would be very much appreciated - the link to my formspring is on the right!

Bits and Pieces

2010-04-30T20:07:00.001+01:00

So, it might be the off-season, but there's still some skating news to be had.

Firstly, the obligatory retirement/continuation announcements. Most skaters haven't committed either way yet, but some have - Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have stated that they will compete for another season at least! This is a fantastic decision; they might be Olympic and World champions but there is so much more they can bring to the sport. Plus, this will ensure a nice friendly "rivalry" between them and Davis and White will continue, giving them both the push to create such masterpiece FDs as they did this year. Kristoffer Berntsson has also stated he will keep competing, which is great news, and Meryl and Charlie have stated their intentions to be in Sochi!

The coaching shuffle has also started; Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates are moving to train with Zoueva and Shpilband. I think this can only be a good thing for the pair, but not necessarily for the other teams Zoueva and Shpilband coach; they might be spreading themselves a little thin, and could be in danger of being the next Morosov. Speaking of Morosov, Nobunari Oda has left him and will be coached by Lee Barkell; a very sensible decision after his disastrous Worlds.

There is also the partner shuffle happening; as predicted, Mukhortova and Trankov are over and he's been trying out with Volosozhar, but Stanislav will still be involved, as assistant coach. Also, Khoklova and Novitski are not longer skating together, and Jana has had a try-out with Fedor Andreev, the son of Marina Zoueva and former Canadian mens skater! Seems like a weird match, and a definite downgrade for Jana - it's only a tryout though, so it may not be successful. It was also assumed that Novitski was retiring due to his injury issues; however, there have been Russian rumours of HIM also looking for a new partner! Hopefully these will be false; it's always been considered that him and Jana had a very good relationship and he will definitely not be able to find a partner as good as Jana, she's such a talent. Piper Gilles and Zachary Donohue have also split.

In weirder news, Nobunari Oda has apparently got married to his girlfriend who is four months pregnant! Kind of unexpected (I think because he looks so young!) but congratulations to him. Lots of changes in his life right now!

The feud between Evan Lysacek (who seems to be doing pretty well on Dancing with the Stars over in America) and Johnny Weir shows no signs of being extinguished. Evan said, when asked about Johnny:

“Stars on Ice” is really selective of who they hire and they only hire the best of the best to skate. It would’ve been hard of them to justify hiring him, and I think he was really upset because he wanted the financial benefit of the tour. A lot of us in the skating world were really disappointed in the way he reacted, basically whining that he wasn’t chosen.

Bit harsh, I think? But Johnny is still doing the media rounds, and on the Wendy Williams Show, the quote was read to him? Johnny's response?

I'm a teenager, and even I didn't know what "slore" meant! But Urban Dictionary filled me in. Honestly, Evan's comment was rude, and so was Johnny's, just in different ways. A bit of friendly rivalry in figure skating is always funny, but when their competitive careers are basically over and they're STILL sniping? Not cool.

Figure Skating in Harlem or Dancing with the Stars?

2010-04-06T16:48:00.013+01:00

The annual Figure Skating in Harlem event took place on April 5th - here's what Ice Network had to say about it:

It's an annual event where stars and fans meet, greet and skate under the stars (hopefully no rain this year) at Wollman Rink in New York's Central Park. This year, Figure Skating in Harlem (FSH), an organization that provides innovative ice skating and educational programming for girls ages 6-18 from the Harlem community, will honor three women who share a commitment to kids.

From the skating world, FSH has chosen Kristi Yamaguchi, who founded the Always Dream Foundation around the same time FSH came into being. On Jan. 16, the foundation celebrated the official opening of the Always Dream Play Park in Yamaguchi's hometown of Freemont, Calif. It's a place where physically challenged and able-bodied kids can play side by side.

And it seems the Stars on Ice tour bus took a pit stop in Central Park, because a lot of familiar faces pitched up to support FSH:

Also present from the skating world was Dorothy Hamill, Charlie White, Mirai Nagasu, Ben Agosto and Sasha Cohen. Donald Trump, Tamara Tunie and Christopher Meloni also attended the benefit due to their work with the cause.

One FSH regular who wasn't able to attend was Evan Lysacek, due to his commitments to Dancing with the Stars. He topped the leaderboard this week with his Quickstep:

But one person who isn't too interested in Evan's footwork? Johnny Weir, NY Mag is reporting:

"Evan is fine as a person. We've been competitors for years and years and years and that's kinda the forefront to us being people to each other," Weir said. "I think he worked very hard and he deserved that Olympic gold medal and he does a good job. He does his work. But as a person I don't really know him that well and we've never really made the effort to be nice to each other." But surely he must at least watch Lysacek on Dancing With the Stars? "No," Weir said. "And I won't."

Ouch! But who'd expect anything less from Johnny?

Post-Season Slump

2010-04-03T21:26:00.005+01:00

Post-season slump is inevitable, especially after the Olympic season, so to combat this Ice Addiction is look back over the 2009-2010 season, and setting a sort of skating questionnaire, asking for some of your favourites over the season. Here are the questions:

Favourite Mens Short Program -
Favourite Mens Long Program -
Favourite Ladies Short Program -
Favourite Ladies Long Program -
Favourite Pairs Short Program -
Favourite Pairs Long Program -
Favourite OD -
Favourite FD -
Favourite Breakout Star of the Season -
Heartbreak of the Season -
Skater(s) You'd Most Like to See Saved From Their Imminent Retirement -
Skater You'd Never Like to See Again! -
Best Tweeter of the Season -

...and here are my answers! Remember, this is totally all for fun, and I've done my answers not on the best score of the season, or the most talented skaters, but on the performances and people I personally adore. I'm sure that there are some stars I've missed. Basically, answers from the heart and not the head!

Favourite Mens Short Program - Jeremy Abbott's "A Day in the Life" Choreographical masterpiece! Honourable Mentions: Weir, Takahashi, Rippon, Lambiel

Favourite Mens Long Program - This was a much stronger season for short programs, I thought. But Oda, Kozuka and Joubert all get mentions from me.

Favourite Ladies Short Program - Mirai Nagasu's "Pirates of the Caribbean"

Favourite Ladies Long Program - Joannie Rochette - "Sampson and Delilah" Honourable Mention - Yu-na Kim

Favourite Pairs Short Program - Evora and Ladwig's "Love Actually". Really embodied the Olympic spirit. Honourable Mention - Shen and Zhao, Denney and Barratt

Favourite Pairs Long Program - Pang and Tong's "Impossible Dream" Honourable Mentions - Savchenko and Szolkowy, Dube and Davison

Favourite OD - Virtue/Moir and Davis/White. How could you choose between the two?

Favourite FD - Again, I could never pick between V/M and D/W. Honourable Mentions - Cappellini/Lanotte

Breakout Star of the Season - Michal Brezina. I am so hoping he maximises his potential and becomes the star that he deserves to be!

Heartbreak of the Season - Joannie Rochette, of course. Honourable (or not so) Mentions - Tomas Verner and his disaster of a season, Novitski's retirement, Joubert and Abbott's Olympics

Skater(s) You'd Most Like to See Saved From Their Imminant Retirement - Belbin and Agosto - so, so fantastic. Honourable Mentions - Lambiel, Weir

Skater You'd Never Like to See Again! - Sorry, Plushy, but my votes for you!

Best Tweeter of the Season - Has to be Jeremy Abbott! He has been hilarious to follow all year. Honourable Mentions - The entire Team USA, they all seem to be on there!

...and there you have it! Answers in the comments please - I'd be interested to know how your opinions differ.

Magic of the Men

2010-03-26T10:40:00.007Z

So...we have a new mens world champion! I'm going to forget about the OD for a bit and instead talk about the mens because it was eventful!

The Highs

Adam Rippon - Can you believe he is the FIFTH ranked American man? Apart from a bobble on the landing of the first triple axel, Adam put down such a good performance. I'd never really been sure about this long program music but thought he pulled it off really nicely last night. To finish sixth in his World debut is very impressive.

Kevin VDP - I was sending Kevin good vibes before he started; it was probably his last ever competitive performance and I really wanted him to go out with a bang. Seemed to work; that quad-triple-triple was astonishing. Is that the highest ever tariff combination? The look of joy at the end of his program was just so adorable to see!

Adrian Schultheiss - He never really gets mentioned as part of the twenty-fourteenies but I think that might change after that performance. The Eurosport commentators said that his program "really suited him" but is that a good thing when you're portraying a mental patient, complete with screams and a straitjacket? Anyway, it was stellar.

Daisuke Takahashi - The gold was his to lose, after some disappointing skates in the final group, and so you have to really respect him for trying a quad flip, and landing it; he really didn't need to take that risk. It might have been downgraded, but the rest of the performance was perfect, and so much fun! He absolutely deserved that gold medal, and I'm so glad he managed to get his head together!.

Brian Joubert - So Brian's skate could have come in the misses - after all, he fell on a triple lutz and had some very questionable jumps landings. However, landing a quad and a quad-double in the same program after his terrible Olympics is something he should be so proud of; I was afraid of a Verner-esque meltdown. But he managed to podium, for the fifth year in a row, which is some record and he'll probably surpass that, given that he's said he'll stay on until 2012 Worlds in Nice.

Patrick Chan - So, it wasn't perfect, and I'll be honest, I'm not a Chan fan. But he got the silver medal, so good on him.

Michal Brezina - One of my favourite performances of the night. His jumps are absolutely out of this world, the speed on the landing and height and flow...incredible! He's also been really consistant this season, which hopefully will continue. In a couple of seasons, once he gets better performance skills, spins and maybe choreo, he'll be unstoppable.

The Misses

Jeremy Abbott - I feel pretty harsh putting Jeremy in the misses, to be honest. In his post-skate interview, he said he was proud of his performance because he didn't pop a single jump and fought until the end of the program. He also ended up 5th, which is a great improvement on his two elevenths. But he did fall twice, which was a real shame, especially as he was completely screwed over with the points for his exquisite short program.

Denis Ten - I didn't see Ten, the Eurosport broadcast missed him off, but it seems he didn't do so great; his country now only have one spot for 2011 Worlds. But he's got a long career ahead of him, so it shouldn't faze him too much.

Takahiko Kozuka - I absolutely adore him, and his jump problems broke my heart, because he's such a talent...but again, he's young.

Nobunari Oda - Because we didn't even get to see him! Too sad - I bet he'll be making some big changes before the start of next season.

And that's the mens event; congratulations to Takahashi, Chan and Joubert! Some of the judging though was very questionable for this event, I thought; leave your comments on that below!

Day Two of Worlds

2010-03-24T19:05:00.007Z

The pairs event is just starting, so thought I'd comment on the mens event.

Firstly, has there ever been such a deep competition at a post-Olympic Worlds? Jeremy Abbott managed to get his act together and skate a fantastic short program (the Eurosport commentators adored it, and rightly so!) but is down in sixth, showing just how great this competition is, even without Lysacek, Weir, Lambiel or Plushenko.

Speaking of getting your act together, I have two words; Brian Joubert. To come back and skate like that after the agony of bombing in Vancouver was just amazing - he also got the highest technical score of the night with his quad-triple combo. His fist-pumping after his jumps and roaring at the end shows how much that must have meant to him, and even a Joubert hater couldn't fail to have enjoyed that.

I've always maintained that the pattern when you have three skaters in an event will be that two will nail their program, and one will meltdown, and this event managed to prove this right. Jeremy Abbott and Adam Rippon both skated great, whilst Ryan Bradley had such a heartbreaking short (though not unexpected, given his injury issues). In the same way, Daisuke Takahashi and Takahiko Kozuka skated fantastically, whilst Nobunari Oda's meltdown (he popped every jump) means he doesn't even qualify for the long! Who'd have thought? Ice is slippery, after all.

So questions for the long prgram; how much will the top ten move around? Can any of the twenty-fourteenies sneak up in the rankings - after all, Brezina, Ten and Rippon all seem to want to make 2010 their year, judging by their skates! Can Joubert pull out a clean long program? Who'll be the next World Gold medalist?

I can't wait for tomorrow: comments on the event below!

Day One of Worlds

2010-03-24T08:21:00.002Z

So the pairs short program and the ice dance compulsories happened last night;

Pairs

Results

Questions:

Can Pang and Tong take the title, or will Kavaguti and Smirnov's "Blue Danube" end their gold medal dreams?
Will Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov EVER look happy?
Can Jessica Dube actually land a sbs triple salchow?
Can Savchenko and Szolkowy hang onto that precarious bronze medal position?
Will the American pairs come out and nail their free skates as well as they did their short programs?

Compulsories

Results

Questions:

Have Faiella and Scali made it a race for fourth, and not bronze, with their lead?
Can the Kerrs/Pechalat & Bourzat/Khoklova & Novitski move around their placings?
Does anyone have nicer costumes than the North American teams?
Will these be the last compulsories ever?
Can Davis and White take that World title?

Ready for Worlds

2010-03-22T15:18:00.005Z

Worlds starts tomorrow and, as with all post-Olympic Worlds there is a real chance for some skaters who are usually low down in the top ten to potentially gain a medal. Here's my preview.

Men

Notable Absences: Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Evgeni Plushenko, Tomas Verner, Stephane Lambiel
Potential Medal Hopes: Nobunari Oda, Daisuke Takahashi, Takahiko Kozuka, Brian Joubert (though, as someone noted on Twitter, it depends which Joubert shows up!), Jeremy Abbott (same situation as Joubert), Patrick Chan
2014 Kids to Watch: Adam Rippon, Michal Brezina, Denis Ten, Florent Amodio

Ladies
Notable Absences: Joannie Rochette
Potential Medal Hopes: Yu-na Kim, Mao Asada, Miki Ando, Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt, Akiko Suzuki
2014 Kids to Watch: Ksenia Makarova, Mirai Nagasu

Pairs

Notable Absences: Shen/Zhao, Volosozhar/Morosov
Potential Medal Hopes: Pang/Tong, Zhang/Zhang, Mukhortova/Trankov, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Kavaguti/Smirnov
2014 Kids to Watch: Denney/Barrett

Dance

Notable Absences: Domnina/Shabalin, Belbin/Agosto, Delobel/Schoenfelder
Potential Medal Hopes: Virtue/Moir, Davis/White, Faiella/Scali, Pechalat/Bourzat
2014 Kids to Watch: Cappellini/Lanotte

Agree/disagree? Comment below!

No more Weir

2010-03-10T14:25:00.003Z

Despite his promises of being in Torino, Johnny Weir joins his teammates Lysacek and Belbin/Agosto in skipping Worlds. Not really a suprise, judging by how many TV appearances and interviews he's been doing; no time for training when you've got Oscar parties to go to. Adam Rippon takes his place - who else is excited to see the Rippon Lutz once more this season?

Over and out

2010-02-26T18:40:00.001Z

So the last medal has been decided! Yu-na could not be a more deserving champion. What a performance! Between her and Mirai, Rachael, Mao's triple axels and of course Joannie, it was quite a competition. Thoughts and analysis potentially coming soon...and now just got the gala to look forward to!

Speaking of looking forward to (Worlds), Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto have announced that they're joining Lysacek and skipping Torino. This means that the Olympics was probably Tanith and Ben's last competition; we'll miss them!

Breaking News

2010-02-25T18:43:00.001Z

Evan Lysacek will not be going to the World Championships. And there you have it folks! Did you see that coming? Since Stars on Ice practice clashes with Worlds, I'd say the answer was "yes".

Media Madness

2010-02-25T17:28:00.001Z

So since I last blogged, the ice dance event has finished and the ladies short program has happened; two of the best events which have ever happened in Olympic history. Virtue and Moir's free dance and Joannie's incredible short program will forever live on in figure skating history; did anyone NOT cry the whole way through her skate?

But here's a round-up of some news to fill up the time between now and the ladies free skate (can you believe it's the last competitive event of the Olympics? How it's flown!)

The US team have been talking about their plans post-Vancouver - hear what Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir are planning. Evan on Dancing with the Stars would be great, but I'd rather see Johnny on it, as long as he could perform to Lady Gaga every week!

Other skaters who have been talking about their life now Vancouver is over includes Brian Joubert; after his awful result last week he has stated he plans to keep competing until 2012 and that he needs to make changes to be successful. Hopefully these plans will convice the French Fed to judge him fairly at the "readiness test" they're giving him before Worlds in March.

Across the pond, all the ladies of the US Olympic team (plus a bit of Johnny Weir thrown in for good measure) talked about their beauty routines and favourite products - definitely worth a read.

In your regular snarking update, Plushenko appears to have finally gone quiet on the skating controversy over his gold medal, but that doesn't mean it's over. On his official website, his medal from Vancouver was billed as "platinum" instead of a silver, but when the international media picked up on it and made an outcry it was swiftly change; with his "people" insisting Plushy was nothing to do with it.

Similarly, Massimo Scali has been criticised for criticizing both Virtue and Moir and the judges in Vancouver; however, Lynn Rutherford over at Ice Network quickly set us straight on how Scali's quotes were manipulated and out of context. Thank goodness!

The media really have been going skating-crazy; as Charlie White tweeted "We were made fun of on the Colbert Report!!! Woohoo, haha I've made it!! " Watch that here; it also mentions Weir and Lysacek.

Go Fug Yourself, a hilarious fashion blog, did a review of some of the costumes we've seen in Vancouver; the good, the bad and the ugly! Read it; I defy you not to laugh your head off!

There have also been other skaters in the media; most of it is US-centered (for example, Lysacek was on the Larry King Show and Davis & White are going to be on the Today Show) but Twitter is the place to be for the best updates.

Enjoy!

Joy and Sorrow for the Canadian Team

2010-02-22T15:19:00.001Z

So there is happy news and terrible news for the Canadian team in Vancouver. Tragically, Joannie Rochette's mother, Therese Rochette, just passed away suffering a heart attack on Sunday at the age of 55. Rochette still plans to compete tomorrow night, and even attended her official practice (pictured). All our thoughts and prayers are with Joannie and her family at this difficult time.

In other skating news, Virtue and Moir took a comfortable lead in the original dance section of the competition yesterday. Both Virtue/Moir and Davis/White skated out of their skins to take first and second position, pushing Domnina and Shabalin's much-talked about Aboriginal program down to third. The free dance today is going to be great; whilst the medallists appear to be set, will they move around?

It's also been confirmed that Evan Lysacek and Nastia Liukin; anyone else with me in not being suprised at all? I'm just wondering if it's too cyncical to think of it as a match made in NBC heaven.

Vancouver 2010; over halfway through!

2010-02-21T16:35:00.001Z

So mens and pairs medals have been given out (my comments on which will come in a giant round-up post after all the events are over)but there is still a drama bubbling between Plushenko and Lysacek. Here are a few articles about Lysacek, Plushenko and the aftermath:

IOC President says Plushenko's behavior only an expression of disappointment - Philip Hersh, Chicago Tribune

The night they killed figure skating - Elvis Stojko, Yahoo! Sports

Timothy Goebel responds to Elvis Stojko’s Rant - Timothy Goebel/Jocelyn Jane Cox, Current Skate of Mind

How Evan Lysacek got ready to win gold - Emma Rosenblum, NY Mag

Lysacek waves off criticism from Russian Federation - Amy Rosewater, Ice Network

Plus the compulsory dance happened last night. Whilst I still wish it had been the Golden Waltz instead, I still loved it! Full results are here. I'm going to call who I want to win right now, and get it out there; Virtue and Moir. Here's hoping! However, thought any of the top teams would be deserving of it after watching those CDs; Davis/White, Belbin/Agosto and of course Domnina/Shabalin really brought it! Original dance is tonight - check out Twitter for updates, live as they happen.

formspring.me

2010-02-20T23:08:00.002Z

Who's your favorite skater?(single female/male)

Male...wow I have a lot. Despite his flaws, I'm a long-time Joubert fan. I know, I know...but I just can't help but love him. This season I've also become a massive Jeremy Abbott fan, and I'm praying he gets assigned TEB next season because I so very much want to see him live! My other favourites are Lambiel, Brezina, Kozuka, Oda, Weir, Verner, Bradley, the list goes on! Other than Plushenko (sorry!) I pretty much love them all.

Ladies, I don't have so many favourites in. Whilst I love Yu-na and Mao, my real favourite lady is Joannie Rochette. I also adore Ashley Wagner, Alissa Czisny, Sarah Meier and Elene Gedevanishvili.

Whilst you didn't ask, I think I'll tack on that my favourite pairs are Savchenko and Szolkowy, and my favourite dancers are...almost all of them! I'm a diehard Marlie and Virtue/Moir fan though.

However, readers of my blog probably know this already; I'm not too good at keeping my biases under control!

Ask me anything

formspring.me

2010-02-20T23:00:00.002Z

Are you as drained from this whole skating thing as I am? Also, which ladies are you looking forward to seeing skate next week?

Yes, very much so. As I've mentioned, I'm totally sleep-deprived and emotionally drained from watching many of my favourites falter. But I'm drained in a good way, I think! Ladies, I'm looking forward to Yu-Na, obviously, but my favourites are Joannie Rochette and Sarah Meier, who I've been a long-time fan of, so I'm hoping they can both nail it. Rochette's long is spectacular!

Ask me anything

Pairs Short Program - Highlights and Lowlights

2010-02-15T14:18:00.001Z

MSo it's started! Some quick thoughts on the pairs short program.

Highlights

Shen and Zhao - These guys are just perfect.
Savchenko and Szolkowy - Whilst their short program has been criticised (the makeup and costumes, anyone?), I think they showed that this year is not just going to be the Shen and Zhao show.
Kavaguti and Smirnov - I love that program!
Evora and Ladwig - Whilst not so technically talented, I think it was just a beautiful performance. Love Actually is one of my favourite pieces of music for skaters, period.

Lowlights

Mukhortova and Trankov - He had a killer fall on the side-by-side triple toeloops; he cried at the end, which was heartbreaking, though I speculated that it was to get some sympathy from Maria, who has a history of absolutely "death-staring" him every time he screws up. Nice move, Maxim.
Dube and Davison - Her nerves really got the better of her, and Jessica fell on the side-by-side triple salchows. Sentimental favourites of mine, I really hope they can pull it out in the long, as their program, to The Way We Were is a Canadian classic.

That's my brief thoughts; who else is excited for the long tonight?

It's here!

2010-02-12T14:30:00.002Z

Opening Ceremonies are tonight! Due to technical issues I might not be able to post during the events, but here's good luck to all the skaters competing. Enjoy!

The Tango Romantica for Dummies

2010-02-07T10:11:00.001Z

Another post to feed on that Olympic fever; some comparisons of the compulsories! I haven't got every top team on here (Belbin and Agosto haven't competeted the Tango Romantica yet, for example) but there's enough that you can watch and make a comparison. Ignoring the possibility of disasters, who do you think will take gold after the CDs?

Important Things to Remember; What the ISU Communication on judging the Tango Romantica Says

Skating Skills
Ice coverage without visible pushing; cleanness and sureness of steps; strongly curved well rounded lobes; lobe to lobe transitions well controlled; controlled body weight changes; light knee action; clean, tight, crisp footwork.

Performance
Perfect vertical and horizontal unison; good carriage and style; controlled body action;nicely matched free legs; balance in performance between partners.

Interpretation
Expression of the typical changes between the soft and strong character of the rhythm, relationship between partners reflecting the lyrical mood of this Tango. Well-defined and strong edges should be skated with a lot of character using good knee action, tight ,clean footwork with matching free leg movements. For good presentation and interpretation the body style and movements should reflect Tango rhythm.

Timing
Very precise and crisp timing, exact beat value for each step, sometimes syncopated to bring out the Tango character.

Here are some of the key players in the medal race performing their Tango Romanticas this season.

Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir

Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin

Meryl Davis/Charlie White

Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali

Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte

Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski

Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat

Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder (from the 2006 Europeans, embedding is disabled on this video, annoyingly!)

I've also decided, as a point of comparions, to add in some of the best performances of the Tango Romantica from the past few years as a point of comparison.

Jayne Torvill/Christopher Dean

Oksana Grishuk/Evengy Platov

Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat

So there you have it; everything you need to know about the Tango Romantica! Hope it was helpful.

Olympic Fever!

2010-02-05T11:27:00.002Z

Now, if you're like me, you're totally excited for the events in Vancouver to start and are itching to see some skating! But to keep you going until the first event (the Pairs Short Program, on Valentines Day!) I've compiled some links/sites/videos to keep you going!

Twitter

Twitter is an invaluable tool for any skating fan. There are a number of skaters who tweet, especially the American ones; my favourites are @jeremyabbottpcf, @EvanLysacek, @JohnnyGWeir, @Adaripp (Adam Rippon, in case you couldn't tell), @AshWagner2010 and @charlieawhite. There are so many more figure skaters out there in the Twitter world, so have a look at Aaron's site Axels, Loops and Spins for a full list.

There are also so many people who tweet skating news, and who, along with me, will be tweeting the Olympic results. The best, I think, are @SarahandDrew (off of Ice Network), @skating102 (Aaron from the aformentioned Axels, Loops and Spins) @blazingblades and @NBCOlympicZone. Don't forget about @Ice_Addiction either!

TV

Skaters seem to be popping up on TV all over the place. Jeremy Abbott, who has traditionally flown under the radar in terms of promotion, was actually on the Today Show and skated a flawless program. Evan Lysacek is also going to be on the Today Show on February 10th, so look out for that. Evan was on Jay Leno (with Kristi Yamaguchi and Mirai Nagasu in the audience!). Also, the latest in the Cutting Edge franchise is going to be shown on March 14th. It's called Fire and Ice; taking inspiration from Brian Joubert/Sasha Cohen's autiobiographies?

Other Stuff

And finally, to keep you going, here are some interviews with skaters which might be interesting. There's an interview with Abbott, and then a little news piece on Nathan Chen, America's hopes for 2018 (!) There are also a few clips on Delobel and Schoenfelder from recent training!

Oh and last bit of skating news; the compulsory dance at the Olympics is going to be the Tango Romantica! Do you like this decision? Personally I was hoping for the Golden Waltz but you might disagree - comment below.

Photogenic or what?

2010-02-02T16:26:00.001Z

So my first post back is some serious skating news...no, it's actually some pretty pictures! Regardless of whether you're a fan of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir or not (and why would you not be?), you'll find these pictures adorable. Other bloggers have, as one of my Tweeters rightly pointed out, already posted some of these but I thought you needed a link to all of them because there are some gems. My personal favourites:

Here are all the photos; the incredible photographer, Myra Klarman, also shot Tessa and Scott in 2008, the images from which you can see here. There is going to be a Part II of these photos as well; I cannot wait. All credit for the pictures goes to her of course!

The hiatus is over!

2010-01-28T19:13:00.001Z

I'm back from hiatus! And my, what I've missed. I really missed blogging over the past few months, and I had to force myself not to start again because what with my exams and my own skating I've had no time to properly do it; in the past some of my posting has been half-hearted and not of good enough quality and I didn't want a repeat of that.

Once my exams were over (for now!) I KNEW that there was just too much going on in the skating world for me to limit myself to a few tweets (www.twitter.com/Ice_Addiction if you're interested) So here I am, and ready and rather raring to go.

I've still be watching the skating since I went on hiatus, and here are my highlights and lowlights to get me back into the swing of things.

+ Jeremy Abbott's long program at US Nationals. It was one of the most amazing skating moments I have ever seen, and I am desperate for him to repeat that in Vancouver.

+ ...which is starting in 15 days and 7 hours! Anticipation for the Olympics has been what's got me through some particularly boring revision sessions these past few months. Hands up who else just cannot wait?

- Speaking of revising, I think that's what Belbin and Agosto need to do with those new long program costumes, a definite lowlight for me. They just really didn't fit with the music at Nats, and that really made a big difference to how the program came across.

+ BUT it left Davis and White open to win US Nationals again, in spectacular fashion. The other top ice dance teams should be very afraid.

- Yes, I'm talking to you Domnina and Shabalin. All that controversy over your Aboriginal original dance has yet to distract from the fact that your free dance does not have that "wow" factor which Davis and White have in spades, or that Maxim's knee has really seen better days.

- Actually, the "wow" factor has been missing for me in a lot of the ladies skating these past few months. I found the European ladies competition somewhat of a letdown, and whilst Flatt and Nagasu were fantastic in the US, I'm dissapointed about Ashley Wagner not making the team.

- I'm also disappointed about Cohen; she had such a great (if overhyped) comeback with the short program but then let herself down in the free skate; not only by fluffing the jumps but by seeming to lose the fire which usually made her competitive programs so exciting.

+ But (to end on a high note) the comebacks from Plushenko and Lambiel didn't let me down (too much). Whilst I'll never be a Plushy fan, you cannot deny that his jumping is amazing, especially after so many years of doing those quads! And on the opposite hand, whilst Lambiel needs to work on the jumps, it was great to see his beautiful artistry and fantastic spins back on the competitive circuit. We're all pleased to see him (apart from a certain Mr Joubert, I'd imagine.)

I could go on and on (I haven't even touched on some of Europeans, or Canadian Nationals) but I think that's enough for now. I have a blog to revive!

Bloggers - Being Respectful?

2009-11-24T15:53:00.001Z

Aaron from Axels, Loops and Spins wrote a great post about the snarking and bashing that happens on a lot of figure skating forums. But what about it coming from actual bloggers themselves? Phil Hersh has long been attacked for his Chicago Tribune articles, but I felt this one really took the biscuit. He did a question and answer session (of questions he made up himself!) Notable quotations include:

"Czisny and Kostner would clean so much of the ice with their bottoms the resurfacing job would be much easier."

"Yuna Kim could stand still for four minutes, and she still would deserve higher component scores than Rochette at her best."

"There is everything to like about Belbin-Agosto and Davis-White as people and performers. And performers is the key thing, because that is all ice dance is about. It's all in the eye of the beholder -- great entertainment, archly camp at times, incredibly hard to do well...and no more a sport than ballet."

Now, I don't know about you, but as a blogger I would never say things like that about skaters. People might argue about how high Rochette's PCS scores are, but to say that about her is clearly not true, and Hersh knows that - in his attempts to make an entertaining, controversial blog post he is merely putting down skaters who do not deserve criticism like that. Bloggers are allowed to question, of course they are, that's our job. But flat out put skaters down? I think not.

Furthermore, I'm not a professional blogger; I get no money for this, I just do it for fun! But Hersh is EMPLOYED by the Chicago Tribune, as well as other publications to write about skating, and so has an obligation to write fairly and honestly, I feel. I hardly have to mention how his writing skills are not reflective of his professional blogging position; at one point he says Rochette got Level 2s "on all three of her four spins".

I should add, this is not a personal attack on Hersh. I don't mean this in an offensive way, as I am merely questioning his post and opinions. He has some good points in his post as well, and attempts to apologise to Jenny Kirk after criticising a very excellent post she made about Cohen's Grand Prix withdrawals (with limited success!)

Do you agree with what I'm saying about Hersh's post? Judging by the comments at the bottom of his article, many others are outraged/exasperated/amused at his post. Or do you think this post is just giving him a wider audience, and catering to his controversial style of blogging?

2009-11-23T15:47:00.001Z

So here are my thoughts from Skate Canada, the last Grand Prix event.

Mens

The mens event really had all to play for, but Jeremy Abbott took the gold, landing the only quad jump of the night. Both him and Takahashi made the Grand Prix Final based on those performances, but the real star was Alban Preaubert, who has the only truely clean long program of the night, to a medley of Rolling Stones songs. He is really a fun skater to watch live! Disappointment for Denis Ten though, who dropped from third to seventh with a mediocre free skate. Also there was disappointment for Chan who, despite a masterful program, had a number of falls.

1 Jeremy ABBOTT
USA
232.99 1 2
2 Daisuke TAKAHASHI
JPN
231.31 2 1
3 Alban PREAUBERT
FRA
212.28 4 3
4 Michal BREZINA
CZE
202.32 5 5
5 Samuel CONTESTI
ITA
202.25 7 4
6 Patrick CHAN
CAN
198.77 6 6
7 Denis TEN
KAZ
193.33 3 9
8 Stephen CARRIERE
USA
188.31 10 7
9 Armin MAHBANOOZADEH
USA
186.48 8 8
10 Joey RUSSELL
CAN
168.71 9 11
11 Kevin VAN DER PERREN
BEL
168.54 11 10
12 Jeremy TEN
CAN
148.96 12 1

Pairs

Shen and Zhao have looked pretty unbeatable so far this season, but at this event Savchenko and Szolkowy managed show that they're going to be frontrunners - it was looking shaky after their disasterous outing in Paris. Their new LP, to "Out of Africa", was absolutely incredble, gaining them what might be considered the first 10 for performance and execution PCS ever (though definitely not the last, as we'll see!) It's definitely an "Olympic" program, and their overall score landed them a world record to boot. Other pairs fared pretty well - Dube and Davison weren't perfect, but managed to get the bronze, whilst Mukhortova and Trankov did a nice performance of "Love Story" to nail the silver. Notice that it was exactly the same medallists from Trophee Eric Bompard, but in a completely different order!

1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY
GER
206.71 1 1
2 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV
RUS
185.71 2 2
3 Jessica DUBE / Bryce DAVISON
CAN
166.93 3 3
4 Anabelle LANGLOIS / Cody HAY
CAN
159.95 4 4
5 Caydee DENNEY / Jeremy BARRETT
USA
157.09 5 5
6 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH
CAN
146.91 7 6
7 Caitlin YANKOWSKAS / John COUGHLIN
USA
143.61 6 7
8 Ksenia OZEROVA / Alexander ENBERT
RUS
113.36 8 8

Ladies

I didn't get to see the ladies long program, but from what I can tell it was a pretty weak field, with missed jumps from almost all of the skaters, including the medallists. However, Suzuki and Rochette still did well enough to make the Grand Prix Final.

1 Joannie ROCHETTE
CAN
182.90 1 1
2 Alissa CZISNY
USA
163.53 2 4
3 Laura LEPISTÖ
FIN
158.52 4 2
4 Mirai NAGASU
USA
156.83 3 3
5 Akiko SUZUKI
JPN
147.72 8 5
6 Amelie LACOSTE
CAN
141.13 6 6
7 Cynthia PHANEUF
CAN
132.48 5 9
8 Caroline ZHANG
USA
132.46 7 8
9 Sarah HECKEN
GER
124.40 10 7
10 Jenna MCCORKELL
GBR
123.50 9 10
11 Joshi HELGESSON
SWE
108.41 11 11

Dance

Dance seemed to be the most predictable of the disciplines, but actually had a different podium to what people expected! Despite Tessa slipping twice in the OD, Virtue and Moir walked away with the gold, gaining one 10 for performance and execution PCS in their beautifully executed free dance. They got a huge score as well (204) which is three points above what Davis and White have achieved this season, so we'll have to see who comes out on top in Tokyo. Pechalat and Bourzat did a nice job with their innovative but somewhat errative FD to Requiem for a Dream - that music's getting used a lot this season (both them and Cappelini/Lanotte will be performing to it at the GPF). Speaking of overused music...Weaver and Poje took an unexpected bronze in front of their home crowd to the "Phantom" music, and I like their cuts far more than Chan's and Davis/White's - far more subtle. With a suprise bronze, there has to be some who lose out, and in this case it was Samuelson and Bates, who ended up in fifth with some errors in the free dance.

1 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR
CAN
204.38 1 1 1
2 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT
FRA
185.07 2 2 2
3 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE
CAN
165.64 3 4 4
4 Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV
RUS
161.68 5 5 3
5 Emily SAMUELSON / Evan BATES
USA
160.76 4 3 5
6 Madison HUBBELL / Keiffer HUBBELL
USA
141.63 6 6 7
7 Carolina HERMANN / Daniel HERMANN
GER
141.61 7 7 6
8 Andrea CHONG / Guillaume GFELLER
CAN
128.70 8 8 8

This event determined the Grand Prix finalists, who I've put below.

Pairs

Shen and Zhao
Pang and Tong
Mukhortova and Trankov
Savchenko and Szolkowy
Kavaguti and Smirnov
Zhang and Zhang

Men

Nobunari Oda
Evan Lysacek
Brian Joubert
Jeremy Abbott
Daisuke Takahashi
Johnny Weir

Ladies

Yu-na Kim
Miki Ando
Joannie Rochette
Alena Leonova
Ashley Wagner
Akiko Suzuki

Dance

Davis and White
Virtue and Moir
Belbin and Agosto
Pechalat and Bourzat
Cappellini and Lanotte
Kerr and Kerr

Going to be an exciting competition; I'm looking forward to 3rd December already!

O Canada!

2009-11-22T20:04:00.001Z

So Skate Canada is over, save for the exhibition, and what an event! I saw almost all of it, and have lots to say, so a big post will be following shortly; for now, here are the results.

Skate Canada Results

Also, the poll has ended! Thanks to everyone who voted. The question was asking who was going to be the most successful skater in the next four year cycle - Adam Rippon, Michal Brezina or Florent Amodio. Rippon won, which I sort of expected, just not by so muh - he got almost half the votes. If anyone has any suggestions for what they think would make a good question for one of my polls, comment below or email km-28@hotmail.com. Thanks! New question will be up soon.

Lutai....Jailed?

2009-11-17T15:48:00.001Z

I know in skating you're meant to expect the unexpected, but this really takes the biscuit. Andrei Lutai, who came 10th in Skate America, got drunk on Sunday night and ended up arrested after stealing a car!

Andrei Lutai, a 23-year-old from St. Petersburg, Russia, is currently in the Essex County Jail in Lewis facing charges of third-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, third-degree unauthorized use of a vehicle and aggravated driving while intoxicated.

Lutai allegedly stole a 2008 Chevrolet Impala parked along Main Street next to Central Garage around 10:45 p.m. Sunday. Lake Placid Police Sgt. Carol Hayes said employees of the business witnessed the theft and immediately called police. One employee got into a vehicle and followed Lutai.

Within five minutes, police spotted the Impala and pulled Lutai over. He was found to be intoxicated and arrested, Hayes said.

There may be more to this story than previously thought though:

Barrett said he expects Lutai's case to be resolved quickly because he said there were conflicting reports from witnesses about whether Lutai was the one who stole the vehicle and was behind the wheel. He said the Impala was already pulled over, next to the Econo Lodge on Cascade Road, when police showed up.

"I don't believe he was properly identified and I don't believe he was actually witnessed by police driving the motor vehicle," Barrett said. "At the time of the arrest, there were also serious communication problems with Mr. Lutai."

But for now:

Lutai was arraigned before village Justice Margaret Dorn and remanded to the Essex County Jail in Lewis in lieu of $100,000 cash bail. He's scheduled to appear in village court again at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Updates will be posted here as they come!

Skate America

2009-11-15T14:59:00.001Z

The results from Cancer.net Skate America 2009 so far are here. Shocker for the mens podium; who'd have thought? I'm really glad though, as I love all three of the medallists, especially Ryan Bradley, who blew me away in his short program in Paris. Pairs wasn't really a suprise, but how great were Shen and Zhao (in the short!)? They're looking like the front-runners for the gold medal in Vancouver, which is understandably worrying Savchenko and Szolkowy, who are apparently crafting a new LP - their current one to "You'll Never Walk Alone" hasn't been well received. That'll be something to look forward to at Skate Canada next weekend.

On another note, my newest poll closed yesterday, and the results were...interesting. I asked about Plushenko's return, and the answer was that people were pleased about it, but only just! It was a closer result than I thought it would be. My new poll is looking past Vancouver and on to Sochi in 2014; who do you think will be the most successful skater in the next four year cycle; Adam Rippon, Florent Amodio and Michal Brezina? All three have only just left the junior ranks, and yet they've all beaten skaters with far more experience and expectation than them; Rippon leapfrogged over Joubert, Preaubert and Ponsero, Brezina managed to place in front of Kozuka and Takahashi, and Amodio surpassed Verner. I appreciate that these results only happened due to errors or meltdowns by the other skaters, but it is still an achievement, and I predict that some of them could beat the old guys when they're all on their game. So what do you think?

Breaking News - Cohen out of Skate America

2009-11-09T17:37:00.001Z

Sasha Cohen withdraws from Skate America in Lake Placid, citing the same injury that stopped her competing in Paris.

"I have been battling this injury for a while," Cohen said. "After meeting with my orthopedic surgeon, it was determined that in order for me to fully recover, I should not compete this week."

Cohen withdrew from her first Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series assignment, Trophée Eric Bompard, in early October after being diagnosed with tendonitis in her right calf.

"I'm very disappointed I won't be able to compete in Lake Placid," Cohen said. "I've been going to physical therapy and training with every intention of being healthy and ready for this competition."

Cohen says she will continue her physical therapy and training, with the goal of competing at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash, Jan. 14-24, 2010.

Replacing Cohen at the event is 2007 U.S. silver medalist Emily Hughes. The 2006 Olympian last competed at Skate America in 2006, finishing fifth.

Honestly? This is a real disappointment for all of Cohen's fans. I know she only sees these Grand Prix events as practice but she needs to get her programs out there before Nationals. I'm really pleased Hughes gets to take her place though, it's a great opportunity for her to compete there.

NHK Trophy - Final Results

2009-11-09T16:47:00.001Z

So here's the full results from NHK Trophy, and my comments on each event.

Ladies

1 Miki ANDO JPN
162.55 2 2
2 Alena LEONOVA RUS
160.85 5 1
3 Ashley WAGNER USA
155.99 1 3
4 Yukari NAKANO JPN
152.35 3 5
5 Laura LEPISTO FIN
152.19 4 4
6 Cynthia PHANEUF CAN
142.03 7 6
7 Yan LIU CHN
126.49 6 10
8 Annette DYTRT GER
126.01 9 9
9 Oksana GOZEVA RUS
123.97 11 7
10 Shoko ISHIKAWA JPN
119.63 10 11
11 Becky BERESWILL USA
118.42 12 8
WD Sarah MEIER SUI
8

This event shows, to me, some of the weaknesses with the current judging system; how can a skater come second in both the short and long and win overall? I know why it happens, and that it makes sense, but still it confuses me! Anyway, that is what happened with Miki Ando at this event. Ladies have been so erratic and unpredictable over the past Grand Prix events, and I’m sure Skate America will be the same way, what with the supposed return of Sasha Cohen. Despite rumours, she has yet to withdraw. Leonova, despite some errors overall, seems to be cementing her place as one of these “one to watch for 2014” skaters.

Mens

1 Brian JOUBERT FRA
232.70 1 1
2 Johnny WEIR USA
217.70 3 3
3 Michal BREZINA CZE
217.48 6 2
4 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN
214.29 4 4
5 Jeremy ABBOTT USA
208.45 2 6
6 Adam RIPPON USA
197.61 8 5
7 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN
186.00 5 10
8 Artem BORODULIN RUS
181.62 7 9
9 Daisuke MURAKAMI JPN
181.04 9 8
10 Jeremy TEN CAN
178.87 12 7
11 Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN
176.36 10 12
12 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE
176.01 11 11

Speaking of ones to watch for 2014…for me, this event was all about Michal Brezina. Most people had never heard of him before this event, but he had the only clean long program of the whole event and performed his Gershwin routine really well. His jumps are also amazingly high. It was interesting to contrast his skate with Rippon, whose is definitely considered the other male skater with great things ahead. Unlike Trophee Eric Bompard, he didn’t do too well here, which was a shame. Similarly, Abbott had a bit of a disaster of a free skate; however, as he dryly noted in the Kiss and Cry, at least he didn’t peak too early in the season! The one American man who didn’t underperform was Johnny Weir, who had a great long program, save for the triple loop which didn’t get off the ground. He came into second place, which was great, after Joubert. Joubert skated last and so decided to play it safe after all the disasters of the previous skaters – he didn’t even do a triple-triple combination, but he nailed the quad toeloop, and narrowly missed a fall on the triple axel. Critics have been complaining about his short program win over Abbott, but I think Joubert’s overall win at this event was very much deserved. The other skater who has to be mentioned is Daisuke Takahashi, ending the reign of successful comebacks that we’ve seen so far in this Grand Prix season. He had a number of falls, and I worry that he isn’t properly recovered from those knee problems. His team mate Takahiko Kozuka also had a bit of a meltdown in the long program unfournately. This event probably had the strongest mens competition out of all the Grand Prixs, yet there were, arguably, some of the weakest performances.

Pairs

1 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
199.65 2 1
2 Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
193.05 1 2
3 Rena INOUE / John BALDWIN USA
158.78 4 3
4 Caydee DENNEY / Jeremy BARRETT USA
151.43 3 5
5 Mylene BRODEUR / John MATTATALL CAN
150.71 6 4
6 Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH RUS
137.49 5 6
7 Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS CAN
130.77 7 7
8 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN
119.48 8 8

I didn’t get to see this event, but Yuko Kavaguti apparently had a horrible fall on the quad salchow, which meant they had to stop their program for a few minutes. This led to a 3 point deduction, putting them in second behind Pang and Tong. Inoue and Baldwin also had a fall on the throw triple axel, but still managed to pick up a bronze medal, which is a real achievement, though it’s a shame about the triple axel; it blew me away in Paris when she landed it!

Dance

1 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA
201.97 1 1 1
2 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR
177.73 2 2 2
3 Vanessa CRONE / Paul POIRIER CAN
165.89 4 3 3
4 Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV RUS
160.01 3 6 4
5 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN
154.90 6 5 5
6 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR
154.61 5 4 6
7 Cathy REED / Chris REED JPN
147.53 7 7 8
8 Allie HANN-MCCURDY / Michael CORENO CAN
145.32 9 8 7
9 Lucie MYSLIVECKOVA / Matej NOVAK CZE
142.33 8 9 9
10 Jane SUMMERSETT / Todd GILLES USA
130.24 10 10 10

…and Ice Dance continues its reign as the most predictable discipline in terms of results. Davis and White looked markedly improved from Rostelecom Cup, and they got a standing ovation for their free dance. Their lifts are really innovative, as are Belbin/Agosto’s and Virtue/Moir’s, which is going to make the Olympics SO exciting! The Kerrs also deserve a mention for getting their first silver medal at a Grand Prix, though they seem to be struggling technically, compared to some of the other couples; they were 10 points off their personal best and were pretty close to Crone and Poirier, which isn’t good news for them in what is almost definitely their last season. Crone and Poirier, however, did great; their free dance, some of which is set to Bohemian Rhapsody, really is a masterpiece. Now that event’s over we’re looking to Skate America; I can’t believe the penultimate Grand Prix is almost upon us! Expect a post of what to expect at the event coming soon.

NHK so far

2009-11-06T12:04:00.001Z

So, I watched the mens short program from Japan....and here's what I thought. Apologies to Aaron from Axels, Loops and Spins for the blantant rip-off of his "flash" posts!

Mens Results

1. Brian JOUBERT FRA 85.35

Overscored? I'm the only one who seems to think he wasn't! Joubert got a new, less revealing outfit and managed to nail his quad combination. However, his lutz had a turnout and his choreography is not as sophisticated as most of the men who skated before him. I thought, however, it was worthy of first place (though as a very vocal Joubert fan I would say that!) It was dynamic, exciting and a total crowd pleaser.

2. Jeremy ABBOTT USA 83.00

This had to be my favourite program of the event though. Great music, great choreo, great jumps, great new haircut! I reckon Jeremy could win if his LP is as solid as his SP was, especially as Joubert isn't known for having consistant long programs. I'm sure Jeremy has won over A LOT of new fans with that performance; he completely owned the ice.

3. Johnny WEIR USA 78.35

I've heard mixed opinions of Weir's new programs but I really liked it; the music started classic and morphed in guitars. Jumps looked pretty solid, though I felt his spins were a little slow. It was a really excellent performance though, especially after the disappointment of CoR.

4. Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 78.18

Oh, Daisuke. Just when I thought your comeback was going alright, that step sequence just came and tripped you up. Hope the long goes a bit better. Good scores, considering.

5. Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 74.05

Another guitar solo piece of music, courtesy of Jimi Hendrix. The music might have been rocking, but I'm afraid the program wasn't. A fall on the triple axel pulled him down, though he did have the highest PCS scores of the event.

6. Michal BREZINA CZE 70.80

I've been a fan of Brezina for a while; whilst technically his program was pretty good, it lacked the spark found necessary for the swing music he was skating to. I think this'll come, though - along with Rippon I think Brezina is a future champion.

7. Artem BORODULIN RUS 69.49

The feed I was watching went down during Borodulin!

8. Adam RIPPON USA 67.15

I thought it was a really nice performance, minus the fall on the triple axel. His face when he received the scores was absolutely heartbreaking; he turned to Orser and said "Why are they so low?" Orser speculated that the lutz was downgraded, but we'll have to see. Honestly? I think he was undermarked, but again, this is coming from a largely Rippon biased viewpoint. I mean, who couldn't be impressed by that "Rippon Lutz"?

9. Daisuke MURAKAMI JPN 66.78

The only Japanese man to skate clean! Nice, but not especially memorable. The "West Side Story" music was fun.

10. Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN 66.55

Love, love, love his "Cliffs of Dover" music"! So fast and enjoyable.

11. Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 64.64

Berntsson is fantastic because he always has so much fun with his programs! He might not have nailed the jumps but it was great for the audience.

12. Jeremy TEN CAN 61.69

I know I watched this, but I can't remember anything about it, so I'm afraid it's going to have to go down as a "not very memorable performance." Sorry Jeremy!

The ladies, pairs and compulsory dance have also taken place; see the results here. Pairs was exciting, with Kavaguti and Smirnov giving a great performance. Ladies was, according to those who saw it, underwhelming as a whole, unfortunately. And the compulsory dance was not broadcast, but Davis and White are in first, with John and Sinead Kerr in second.

NHK Trophy Preview

2009-11-02T15:20:00.001Z

So Cup of China's over, and we're already looking to the next event, which is the NHK Trophy in the adorably named Big Hat arena in Nagano, Japan. Here's a preview of who you're going to see and how they're likely to do.

Mens

The mens event is definitely going to be where all the excitement is. All eyes will be on Daisuke Takahashi, who's returning to competition after a season off due to knee surgery. Another skater going for gold will be Brian Joubert, who'll be keen to recover from the disapointment that was Trophee Eric Bompard. Joubert has stated that he plans to keep competing after 2010 as he wants to win every Grand Prix event. He only has NHK and Cup of China to go so he'll be hoping to cross Japan off his list here. The American men coming to this event are also very strong; Johnny Weir will be trying to improve after his poor showing in Russia, whilst Adam Rippon will attempt to capitalise on his bronze medal from Trophee Eric Bompard this season. Jeremy Abbott will also have a shot at the podium, as will Japan' Takahiko Kozuka. The European contigency includes the always entertaining Kristoffer Berntsson and Michal Brezina from the Czech Republic.

Ladies

The ladies event will be focused, naturally, around the Japanese girls; both Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano are scheduled to compete. Other competitors who might do well here are Alena Leonova, Ashley Wagner and Sarah Meier, who missed the Grand Prixs last year due to injury. Also challenging will be Laura Lepisto, who looked strong at the Japanese Open earlier in the season.

Pairs

The pairs event will really be a battle between Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, and Pang/Tong. The bronze medal will most likely be taken by Rena Inoue/John Baldwin, if they can land that throw triple axel as well as they did in Paris. It'll also be interesting to see how the young American team of Caydee Denney / Jeremy Barrett do - they did really well last season.

Ice Dance

Ice dance is probably the most clear-cut in terms of results; most people would predict Davis and White to top the podium, with John and Sinead Kerr in second and Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier in third. The Ukrainian couple, Anna Zadorozhniuk / Sergei Verbilo, could also cause an upset; they came in fourth in China this weekend.

Post your own predictions in the comments below!

Ladies Long Program from China

2009-10-31T08:38:00.001Z

What strange results...Rochette managed to pull up greatly from the short, though it wasn't her best performance. It's such a dynamic and high-quality program she's got that I reckon she'll do very well in Vancouver, in the race for silver. Nagasu also had a good skate, minus one fall, but she had 4 under-rotations which pulled her down to 5th.

1 Akiko SUZUKI JPN
176.66 4 1
2 Kiira KORPI FIN
163.27 2 3
3 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN
163.18 7 2
4 Rachael FLATT USA
157.71 5 5
5 Mirai NAGASU USA
155.38 1 6
6 Carolina KOSTNER ITA
154.18 3 7
7 Fumie SUGURI JPN
145.99 6 8
8 Diane SZMIETT CAN
144.28 11 4
9 Yan LIU CHN
132.80 8 9
10 Beatrisa LIANG USA
131.39 9 10
11 Bingwa GENG CHN
121.20 10 11
WD Binshu XU CHN
12

Cup of China - More Results

2009-10-30T14:26:00.001Z

So here's the rest of the results from the first day of Cup of China.

Ice dance had some really high quality programs. Belbin and Agosto's definitely deserved their score - it was a wonderful performance, as was Khokhlova and Novitski's, despite the terrible music!

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA
98.66 1 1
2 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS
92.78 2 2
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
89.96 3 3
4 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR
79.65 6 4
5 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR
77.83 4 7
6 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN
76.20 8 5
7 Madison CHOCK / Greg ZUERLEIN USA
76.03 7 6
8 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN
71.51 5 9
9 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
67.09 9 8

Pairs was a great event...Shen and Zhao were absolutely flawless, and have a ten point lead so the gold is theirs. Another great skate was from the Russian pairs, who were almost unknown before this event.

1 Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO CHN
72.28 1
2 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
62.98 2
3 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE RUS
62.54 3
4 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN
61.92 4
5 Meagan DUHAMEL / Craig BUNTIN CAN
55.08 5
6 Huibo DONG / Yiming WU CHN
50.32 6
7 Amanda EVORA / Mark LADWIG USA
48.02 7
8 Vanessa JAMES / Yannick BONHEUR FRA
47.28 8

Cup of China Results So Far

2009-10-30T11:35:00.001Z

Here are the results so far. It's shaping up to be a pretty exciting competition; the ladies and mens long programs tomorrow will be good as the skaters are so close together that who knows who'll win?

1 Nobunari ODA JPN
83.35 1
2 Sergei VORONOV RUS
81.40 2
3 Evan LYSACEK USA
80.80 3
4 Samuel CONTESTI ITA
72.08 4
5 Jinlin GUAN CHN
66.70 5
6 Yannick PONSERO FRA
66.65 6
7 Stephen CARRIERE USA
65.24 7
8 Chao YANG CHN
65.10 8
9 Denis TEN KAZ
64.05 9
10 Ming XU CHN
61.02 10
11 Kevin REYNOLDS CAN
60.12 11
12 Armin MAHBANOOZADEH USA
59.54 12

1 Mirai NAGASU USA
62.20 1
2 Kiira KORPI FIN
61.20 2
3 Carolina KOSTNER ITA
61.12 3
4 Akiko SUZUKI JPN
59.52 4
5 Rachael FLATT USA
58.80 5
6 Fumie SUGURI JPN
55.46 6
7 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN
52.12 7
8 Yan LIU CHN
51.28 8
9 Beatrisa LIANG USA
50.76 9
10 Bingwa GENG CHN
47.64 10
11 Diane SZMIETT CAN
44.24 11
12 Binshu XU CHN
37.08 12

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA
38.33 1
2 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS
36.30 2
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
35.37 3
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR
30.88 4
5 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN
30.40 5
6 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR
29.43 6
7 Madison CHOCK / Greg ZUERLEIN USA
28.76 7
8 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN
27.87 8
9 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
24.73 9

Russia - A Round-up

2009-10-27T15:54:00.001Z

I wasn't able to watch the long programs or free dances from this evet, but from looking at the scores...wow. Dance and pairs were fairly predictable, ladies and mens less so (Weir in 6th!). This is shaping up to be an exciting season, and we've only had two Grand Prixs so far!

View all results here.

Rostelecom - Original Dance

2009-10-23T19:14:00.001+01:00

So this one stayed basically the same in terms of positions. Have to say though, I absolutely loved Meryl and Charlie's original dance. It seemed really authentic, like they have studied Indian dance, and the final lift was really spectacular.

1 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA
100.08
2 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA
85.31
3 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS
81.25
4 Vanessa CRONE / Paul POIRIER CAN
78.39
5 Anastasia PLATONOVA / Alexander GRACHEV RUS
75.81
6 Katherine COPELY / Deividas STAGNIUNAS LTU
75.65
7 Ekaterina RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO RUS
75.34
8 Lucie MYSLIVECKOVA / Matej NOVAK CZE
75.09
9 Carolina HERMANN / Daniel HERMANN GER
68.18

Unfortunately I'm going away tomorrow, so there won't be any updates from the long programs and free dance. But expect a full round-up when I come back Tuesday/Wednesday. Good luck to all the skaters!

Rostelecom Short Programs - Ladies and Pairs

2009-10-23T17:44:00.002+01:00

Pairs results were fairly predictable, ladies result...less so. Unfortunately I missed almost all of both of these events (doesn't college realise I have skating to watch?) but did catch the end of the ladies. Mao two-footed a double axel in the place of her triple, and didn't even get a combination on the end. Miki also messed up the second jump in her combination. There were also some awful falls, from Jenna McCorkell and Annette Dytrt. But the American ladies, not to mention Sebestyen and Leonova, did great!

1 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN
57.94 1
2 Alissa CZISNY USA
57.64 2
3 Miki ANDO JPN
57.18 3
4 Alena LEONOVA RUS
56.78 4
5 Ashley WAGNER USA
55.16 5
6 Mao ASADA JPN
51.94 6
7 Amelie LACOSTE CAN
51.82 7
8 Oksana GOZEVA RUS
51.08 8
9 Katarina GERBOLDT RUS
42.64 9
10 Anastasia GIMAZETDINOVA UZB
42.30 10
11 Jenna MCCORKELL GBR
40.94 11
12 Annette DYTRT GER
36.76 12

1 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
65.40 1
2 Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
61.62 2
3 Keauna MCLAUGHLIN / Rockne BRUBAKER USA
61.34 3
4 Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV RUS
54.42 4
5 Nicole DELLA MONICA / Yannick KOCON ITA
53.56 5
6 Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV RUS
51.94 6
7 Mylene BRODEUR / John MATTATALL CAN
46.66 7
8 Maria SERGEJEVA / Ilja GLEBOV EST
44.88 8

Now its just the original dance left for today, which is exciting. Apparently Davis and White's is excellent, so that'll be worth watching.

Rostelecom Compulsory Dance Results

2009-10-23T11:39:00.001+01:00

So...I'm no expert on dance, but this event was really great! Charlie and Meryl were just...wow. They looked like they were skating a different dance to everyone else. They have a comfortable lead, which I know they're going to maintain this evening and tomorrow. However, I could be completely wrong; I'm watching it on a Russian TV feed and so have no idea what the commentators are saying!

1 Meryl
DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 37.87
2 Anna
CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 32.73
3 Ekaterina
RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS 30.33
4 Vanessa
CRONE / Paul POIRIER CAN 29.94
5 Katherine
COPELY / Deividas STAGNIUNAS LTU 29.39
6 Lucie
MYSLIVECKOVA / Matej NOVAK CZE 28.08
7 Anastasia
PLATONOVA / Alexander GRACHEV RUS 27.93
8 Ekaterina
RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO RUS 27.89
9 Carolina
HERMANN / Daniel HERMANN GER 25.54

Predicting Rostelecom Results

2009-10-21T15:18:00.001+01:00

That's right, it's time for some predictions from Rostelecom Cup of Russia! Though considering how unexpected the TEB results were (Savchenko/Szolkowy in third!) my predictions will probably be spectacularly wrong.

Mens

Mens is probably the hardest to predict, since who knows how Evgeni Plushenko will do? It's his first competition since his success in Torino , and he's been looking very solid in practice. He's allegedly training for 6 to 7 hours a day, and so has a good shot of making the podium, but how will he fare against Johnny Weir and Takahiko Kozuka? They're the three skaters I predict for a podium position, now that Patrick Chan has withdrawn. Others to watch at the event will be Kevin Van Der Perren and Florent Amodio, who will be making his senior Grand Prix debut.

Ladies

Mao Asada will be hoping to to win after her defeat in Paris. It'll also, reportedly, be the last performance of her current short program to "Masquerade", as she plans to change it after this event to her exhibition piece, "Caprice". The two skaters that will surely be rounding off the podium are her fellow team mate and supporter at Trophee Eric Bompard, Miki Ando, and the American Ashley Wagner, who recently started her own Youtube vlog series. I think another skater who might manage to sneak up to a podium place is Alena Leonova, who recently won the Findlandia Trophy. I also have to wish Jenna McCorkell luck; according to her Facebook, she had huge difficulties obtaining a visa to come to the event and so I hope all that effort doesn't go to waste for her.

Ice Dance

All eyes are going to be on Meryl Davis and Charlie White, especially now that Domnina and Shablin have withdrawn from the event. Their team mates Vanessa Crone and Paul Poitier will also be at the event, and will be likely to make the podium, unless the Italian couple, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte get in the way. I think these three will be a cinch for medals, but Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer might also have a shot. They also have an advantage as they're skating in front of their home crowd, but trying saying that to someone like Brian Joubert!

Pairs

Again, it'll most likely be a home victory in this event; Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov will be looking to improve on last year's silver medal. However, they'll have stiff competition from Pang and Tong, who won the Grand Prix Final last season. The bronze medal has Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker's name on it; they'll be competing at the event for the first time. This'll be an exciting event, seeing how these pairs fare.

So that's the rundown of the competition; good luck to all the skaters!

Also, I've created a new poll; it's one which I have already run a few months ago but it'll be interesting to see whether the results change, considering it's a new season, with some of the events changed (Cup of Russia and Skate America both have new sponsors, for example).

Rostelecom; what'll happen?

2009-10-21T14:41:00.003+01:00

That's right, it's time for some predictions from Rostelecom Cup of Russia! THough considering how unexpected the TEB results were (Savchenko/Szolkowy in third!) my predictions will probably spectacularly wrong.

Mens

Mens is probably the hardest to predict, since who knows how Evgeni Plushenko will do? It's his first competition since his success at the Torino Olympics, and he's been looking very solid in competition, but how will he fare against Johnny Weir and Takahiko Kozuka? They're the three skaters I predict for a podium position, now that Patrick Chan has withdrawn. Others to watch at the event will be Kevin van der Perren and Florent Amodio, who will be making his senior Grand Prix debut.

Ladies

Mao Asada will be hoping to to win after Kim beat her hands down in Paris. It'll also, reportedly, be the last performance of her current short program to "Masquerade", as she plans to change it after this event to her exhibition piece, "Caprice". The two skaters that will surely be rounding off the podium are her fellow teammates and supporter at Trophee Eric Bompard Miki Ando, and the American Ashley Wagner, who recently started her own Youtube vlog series I think another skater who might manage to sneak up to a podium place is Alena Leonova, who recently won the Findlandia Trophy. I also have to wish Jenna McCorkell luck; according to her Facebook, she had huge difficulties obtaining a visa to come to the event and so I hope all that effort doesn't go to waste for her.

Ice Dance

All eyes are going to be on Meryl Davis and Charlie White, especially now that Domnina and Shablin have withdrawn from the event. Their team mates Vanessa Crone and Paul Poitier will also be at the evnt, and will be likely to make the podium, unless the Italian couple, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte get in the way. I think these three will be a cinch for the podium, but Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer might also have a shot. They also have an advantage as they're skating in front of their home crowd, but trying saying that to someone like Brian Joubert!

Pairs

Again, it'll most likely be a home victory in this event; Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov will be looking to improve on last year's silver medal. However, they'll have stiff competition from Pang and Tong, who won the Grand Prix Final last season. The bronze medal has Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker's name on it; they'll be competing at the event for the first time. This'll be an exciting event, seeing how these pairs fare.

I'm going away this weekend (to Paris, again!) so won't find out whether these predictions were correct or not until Monday.

Trophee Eric Bompard, firsthand

2009-10-19T12:06:00.002+01:00

So I'm back from Paris! And what a weekend. This is going to be a seriously long blog post so be prepared!

After arriving in Paris and checking into our hotel we went straight to the arena, POBP Bercy, for the compulsory dance. If you haven't seen it, it's an amazing arena; the sides are covered in grass, and I've always wondered how they cut it, since it's vertical!

1. Tessa Virue/Scott Moir CAN 38.41
2. Sinead Kerr/John Kerr GBR 36.13
3. Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat FRA 35.53
4. Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates USA 31.11
5. Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butikov RUS 29.56
6. Kimberly Navarro/Brent Bommentre USA 27.17
7. Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell USA 27.17
8. Ekaterina Rubleva/Ivan Shefer RUS 27.12
9. Pernelle Carron/Lloyd Jones FRA 26.28
10. Zoe Blanc/Pierre-Loup Bouquet FRA 24.08

I'd never seen a compulsory dance before, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Virtue and Moir are really in a league of their own; their precision was totally amazing and they managed to keep it up throughout the whole competition. I managed to sit in the 6th row for the whole of Friday's event (it's first come first served for seats, though you can only sit on one side of the arena!). Plus Albena Denkova was sitting two rows in front of me, which was pretty exciting.

Next was the mens' short program:

1. Tomas VERNER CZE 81
2. Nobunari ODA JPN 79.2
3. Adam RIPPON USA 75.82
4. Sergei VORONOV RUS 72.8
5. Yannick PONSERO FRA 72.5
6. Brian JOUBERT FRA 72.15
7. Alban PREAUBERT FRA 66.49
8. Ryan BRADLEY USA 65.21
9. Chao YANG CHN 60.72
10. Javier FERNANDEZ ESP 60.56
11. Peter LIEBERS GER 60.31
12. Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN 51.45

The highlight for me had to be Adam Rippon. His short program, to "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", had the audience in complete silence (which is very rare in France!) as they paid attention. His happiness whilst he is skating is so evident and really makes his skating far more enjoyable to watch. The US men actually did a really great job on the short program; I adored Ryan Bradley's SP, though it didn't score so highly. He skated to the ever-popular "Dark Eyes" and showed real charisma. The audience absolutely loved him, especially on his step sequence, though it only obtained Level One. His triple axel in the program was massive, best 3A I saw all weekend. The other amazing SP was obviously Tomas Verner. When I had got over his costume, I really got into his program; "Zorba the Greek" worked so well for him. Brian might not have done so well, but I still adore that program. I also got a t-shirt with him (and the other French Olympic hopefuls on) for 19 euros.

Then we watched the Pairs SP:

1. Savchenko and Szolkowy, Germany: 72.98
2. Mukhortova and Trankov, Russia: 66.98
3. Dube and Davison, Canada: 64.54
4. Canac and Coia, France: 55.96
5. Inoue and Baldwin, USA: 55.06
6. Dong and Wu, China: 49.70
7. Castelli and Schnapir, USA: 49.50
8. James and Bonheur, France: 38.96

I'm a huge Savchenko and Szolkowy fan, but those painted clown faces? Honestly, they were so distracting, I could barely enjoy their program. I did, however, really enjoy Dube and Davidson; they seem to have recovered from the disappointments of last season. Their body language seems so much better as well, in the kiss and cry and whatnot. On the subject of body language, I had to mention Mukhortova and Trankov - they seemed to have turned a real corner after her cold behaviour last year. Canac and Coic did so well; I had a seriously noisy French family in the rown behind me who screamed and went absolutely nuts when they skated; turned out to be Florent Amodio! Candice Didier was also sitting and watching for most of the events; it's a real shame she didn't get to skate. Dong and Wu were excellent, I thought, though it seems to me she is far more talented than him. Her jumps were totally consistant throughout the warm-up, whereas he didn't look so solid.

Then it was the ladies' event:

1. Yu-na Kim, Korea: 76.08
2. Yukari Nakano, Japan: 59.64
3. Mao Asada, Japan: 58.96
4. Alexe Gilles, USA: 58.22
5. Caroline Zhang, USA: 57.26
6. Kiira Korpi, Finland: 54.20
7. Carolina Kostner, Italy: 51.26
8. Elene Gedevanishvilli, Georgia: 48.68
9. Anna Jurkiewicz, Poland: 43.86
10. Gwendoline Didier, France: 41.96

...or as I like to call it, the competition for second place. Yu-na Kim might have the hugest scores ever (my friend worked out that she could have missed out every single jump and still won) but my does she deserve it. Her James Bond SP was just perfect, and she had a huge amount of support in the crowd; there were hundreds of Koreans, all with elaborately made banners that put mine to shame. Tatiana Tarasova might have been a talented coach, but honestly I think Mao needs to move on. It really was just not working well for her this event. The suprise of the event, for me, was Alexe Gilles. Her SP was mature and elegantly skated, and was really a great Senior Grand Prix debut. Caroline Zhang's program was nice; she might have improve in a lot of areas, including her speed over the ice, but her technique (the infamous "mule kick") seems to be getting even worse.

The last event of the friday was the original dance:

1. Virtue and Moir, Canada: 100.32
2. Pechalat and Bourzat, France: 91.87
3. Kerr and Kerr, Great Britain: 90.86
4. Samuelson and Bates, USA: 77.66
5. Navarro and Bommentre, USA: 77.36
6. Gorshkova and Butikov, Russia: 75.14
7. Rubleva and Shefer, Russia: 74.24
8. Carron and Jones, France: 71.46
9. Hubbell and Hubbell, USA: 70.24
10. Blanc and Bouquet, France: 68.32

The OD of the evening had to be Sinead and John. There were three American country/folk ODs in a row and the best was definitely saved until last. Yes, I have have a British bias, but I think the whole audience agreed with me! The theme (a trucker, Sinead, picks up a hitchiker, John) was clearly obviously, and the music (Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere") worked really well. Virtue/Moir and Pechalat/Bourzat were obviously better in terms on technicality, but for audience fun Sinead and John won hands down. I got talking to a woman sitting near us who turned out to be a family friend who used to coach them when they were young. She told us loads of interesting stuff, including the real reason why Sinead broke up with her partner before John (Jamie Ferguson) and why John was put on the ice in the first place (he was annoying and "full of it" and needed to be kept out of trouble!) I think Samuelson/Bates and Navarro/Bommentre are going to be ones to watch for the future.

The saturday opened with the mens' long program. I managed to get a video of the warm-up:

1 Nobunari ODA JPN 242.53
2 Tomas VERNER CZE 229.96
3 Adam RIPPON USA 219.96
4 Brian JOUBERT FRA 207.39
5 Yannick PONSERO FRA 205.74
6 Sergei VORONOV RUS 204.45
7 Alban PREAUBERT FRA 189.63
8 Chao YANG CHN 178.63
9 Ryan BRADLEY USA 177.65
10 Peter LIEBERS GER 176.52
11 Javier FERNANDEZ ESP 170.16
12 Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN 155.43

Nobunari Oda really stole the show with his Charie Chaplin routine, it was totally adorable. He always looks so young! Speaking of young, again Adam Rippon did amazingly! I felt he looked nervous in the warm-up, but he came out and did a really excellent routine. His joy when he realised he was in position for a medal was seriously cute; I don't know if Ice Network caught it, but he did a jump off the side of the kiss and cry, and punched the air. Aww. He seems really sweet; I saw him talking to Joubert before the warm-up and Verner whilst on the podium. He's friendly! On the subject of Verner, he might not have been able to prevent himself running out of steam in his "The Godfather" LP, but I reckon if he can perform it to the best of his ability, he'll be a force to reckoned with. Speaking of which, I don't think Yannick Ponsero should be written off; his LP to a Gershwin medley was really excellent, despite a number of doubling outs jumps. However, in France he gets very little support, compared to Alban Preaubert; every time he skates, the French fans almost take the roof off the arena! Despite a crowd-pleasing routine to a medley of Rolling Stones songs, I can't say I'm a fan. Similarly, Joubert didn't fare well at all, finishing in the same place as last year. Despite all the faults in both his programs, I though he was great. If he manages to "get his head in the game" I think those programs will fare him well.

There was quite a bit of drama in the pairs' LP:

1 Maria MUKHORTOVA
Maxim TRANKOV RUS 192.93
2 Jessica DUBE
Bryce DAVISON CAN 180.97
3 Aliona SAVCHENKO
Robin SZOLKOWY GER 174.42
4 Rena INOUE
John BALDWIN USA 158.36
5 Adeline CANAC
Maximin COIA FRA 150.18
6 Huibo DONG
Yiming WU CHN 144.45
7 Marissa CASTELLI
Simon SHNAPIR USA 133.01
8 Vanessa JAMES
Yannick BONHEUR FRA 118.66

I can't believe anyone saw that coming; what a meltdown from Savchenko and Szolkowy! It was really unfortunate; they were lucky to end up in 3rd. Better now than in Vancouver, though. The two pairs who leapfrogged over them did derserve their positions. though. Dube and Davidson's program to "The Way We Were" was magical, I felt, and many are comparing the program to Sale and Pelletier. Speaking of S/P, I was one of the people who saw extreme irony in Mukhortova/Trankov using the iconic "Love Story". Whilst I found it hard to get S/P out of my head, I though they actually did a great job. Finally, have to mention Inoue/ Baldwin; man that triple axel was AMAZING. They might be a bit older than most of the skaters at the event but I think they've still "got it". Their program was definitely a crowd favourite.

In between the pairs and ladies event, everyone is forced to leave the stadium. A couple of my friends were staying at the Novotel, the official competitors' hotel across from the arena, so we went to do hang out in the lobby. In the space of about twenty minutes we saw Inoue and Baldwin, who signed autographs and posed for pictures for ages, and Nobunari Oda, who also did the same. We also saw Brian Orser and Yu-Na Kim's mother, holding her dress, waiting for Yu-Na to come down the lifts. There was positively a crowd waiting. Her, Mao and Yukari all came out but were bundled off to the arena really quickly. We also saw Miki Ando (who wasn't competing) with Morosov, just the two of them, a couple of times, which did nothing to extinguish those relationship rumours. Her and Valentina Marchei watched most of the competition together.

Anyway, we had kind of resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren't going to actually talk to any of the skaters/coaches (they were far too busy and we were far too nervous!) so we left the hotel. As we were leaving, I spied Adam Rippon coming in and just had to get a picture. I told him how much I loved his short program and he was seriously nice, considering I was going all crazy fangirl on him! I've obviously cropped my friends out of the picture.

So back to the arena, for the ladies:

1 Yu-Na KIM KOR 210.03
2 Mao ASADA JPN 173.99
3 Yukari NAKANO JPN 165.70
4 Caroline ZHANG USA 153.15
5 Alexe GILLES USA 151.92
6 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 147.63
7 Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO 143.43
8 Kiira KORPI FIN 138.83
9 Gwendoline DIDIER FRA 118.07
10 Anna JURKIEWICZ POL 115.06

Erm, so...wow. Yu-na's skate, and subsequent score just blew me away. Brian Orser is just the most amazing coach, period. I want to just give all the European ladies a big hug. I really hope Carolina and Kiira can pull it together. Elene Gedvanishvili might have had a program to Carmen, of all the pieces, but actually she did a really great job.

And finally....to the ice dance.

1 Tessa VIRTUE
Scott MOIR CAN 197.71
2 Nathalie PECHALAT
Fabian BOURZAT FRA 181.64
3 Sinead KERR
John KERR GBR 177.11
4 Emily SAMUELSON
Evan BATES USA 158.07
5 Ekaterina RUBLEVA
Ivan SHEFER RUS 155.54
6 Kimberly NAVARRO
Brent BOMMENTRE USA 150.29
7 Kristina GORSHKOVA
Vitali BUTIKOV RUS 145.96
8 Madison HUBBELL
Keiffer HUBBELL USA 143.28 7
9 Pernelle CARRON
Lloyd JONES FRA 140.27 9
10 Zoe BLANC
Pierre-Loup BOUQUET FRA 138.12

All of the top free dances from this event absolutely blew me away. Navarro/Bommentre, Samuelson/Bates, Kerr/Kerr, Pechalat/Bourzat and Virtue/Moir were all magical. Virtue and Moir were especially spectular; I love how they encorporated the lift from last year's FD but added a innovative dismount. Some said that their Mahler music was boring, but I think the complete opposition. That FD has Olympic Gold Medal written all over it, if they clean it up a bit (there were 2 deductions). For this event we sat behind the Kerrs' aunt and cousins, who were cheering them on very enthusiastically.

Then we watched the medal ceremony: pictures below. When all the skaters finished posing for the photographers they all skated off, but we shouted for John and Sinead and they stopped right in front of us to take some pictures, which was nice. Their dad filmed the entire medal ceremony rink-side! And Tessa and Scott and their coach posed for loads of pictures on the kiss and cry and stuff, it was so sweet!

Overall, it was a great event; really got me excited for the rest of the season! Agree or disagree with what I said? Comment below!

Cohen's out of Trophee Eric Bompard

2009-10-10T09:20:00.001+01:00

Anyone else see this one coming? Sarcasm aside, it's a real shame that Sasha won't be competing in Paris next weekend due to tendinitis in her right calf. What's even more of a shame is that the event is so close, there probably isn't enough time for them to find someone else to take her place. It was going to be such a great showdown with her and Yu-na and Mao, though it'll still be an exciting event. Jennifer Kirk has some really interesting comments on her blog, which I recommend you read. What do you think about her withdrawal?

Good news, bad news

2009-10-09T17:46:00.002+01:00

Been a while since I blogged, and 3 weeks there has been a lot of skating news, both good and bad.

The Good

NBC is going to air some of the Grand Prix series;

The partnership includes 12 hours of live event coverage on NBC Sports during the 2009-10 season, including live primetime coverage of the ladies free skate at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Jan. 14-24, 2010, in Spokane, Wash. The 2010 U.S. Winter Olympic Figure Skating Team will be determined at the conclusion of this event. Universal Sports, available in more than 56 million homes, will once again offer additional coverage and re-airs of Skate America and the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Excellent for those in the US, where the popularity of skating has seen somewhat of a decline in recent years.

Also, Isabelle Delobel gave birth to a baby boy called Lois on the 1st October. Congratulations Isabelle!

The Japan Open also just finished a few days ago, and seemed to be very successful, especially for Joannie Rochette, whose LP from the event is Program of the Day. I just thought it was wonderful, and will be interested to see how it progresses through the season. She looks in great shape already, and actually got a new personal best of 126.39 points for the program, which is to Camille Saint-Saens' "Samson and Delilah".

Also, the Finlandia Trophy is currently on at the moment in Vantaa, Finland, and finishes on the 11th. Today is the compulsory dance and the mens's short program. Big names in the competition include the Kerrs, Laura Lepisto, Fumie Suguri, Kiira Korpi, Susanna Poykio, Kevin van der Perren and Kristoffer Berntsson. It is also the return of Daisuke Takahashi, who had an injury that forced him to miss the whole of last season, which is exciting. As soon as results get in, they'll be posted here. The full line-up of skaters is available here.

The Bad

It appears Eurosport will not be showing the Grand Prix series this year, due to apparent legal issues. They broadcast every event last year and it seemed to be very successful, but despite impassioned pleas from the die hard fans (myself included, of course) the channel won't budge. Ice Network also announced their subscription schedule today but the Grand Prix series are only available to those in America, sadly.

Kimmie Meissner has also had to withdraw from her two Grand Prix events and thus the whole season due to a knee injury. Things have been tough on Kimmie these past few months and this setback is so awful. Furthermore, there are rumours flying around, which I cannot confirm either way, that US Figure Skating will announce the withdrawal of one of their skaters from Trophee Eric Bompard, which starts a week today. Let's hope this is a false rumour.

Happy Birthday to...

2009-09-20T17:56:00.001+01:00

...Brian Joubert and Alban Preaubert! The french skaters share birthdays, though Joubert was born in '84, whilst Preaubert was born in '85. So happy birthday boys! I look forward to seeing you both at Trophee Eric Bompard, in less than a month!

Evan and Johnny talk sense

2009-09-15T08:25:00.001+01:00

Evan Lysacek is a good competitor. The clip below from the recent 2009 United States Olympic Team Media Summit shows of Evan Lysacek shows him speakig about his preparation for the Olympics. He has a great attitude, and to me seems to speak like a champion! His drive and focus are really admirable. Watch it below. Oh, and thanks to Aaron from Axels, Loops and Spins for bringing this to my attention.

Speaking of good competitors, Johhny Weir also recently did a Q&A session for his website, and as ever it was fascinating. One answer left me asking questions though:

from Jennie

Q: My question is about Patrick Chan and Brian Joubert. Are you familiar with their war of words? I think Patrick pretty much said that Brian's programs are void of actual choreography so he has to have the quad. If so, who do you agree with?

A: I was at the World Championships and was made aware of their little battle in the press. Brian has always had a very direct way of voicing his opinion through the years and he has had his share of criticism for it. What struck me was that a young boy, only in his second championship wanted to throw down with one of the mainstays of the podium at the World Championships. That would have been like me attacking Yagudin in my first season on the Grand Prix. I found it a bit disrespectful. I believe everyone has a right to their opinion but show it in the correct way. I may not be one to talk about this since my mouth has run away with me from time to time, but I respect every skater who can get out there and show their heart and soul when they compete and in his way, Brian Joubert does that, as does Patrick Chan. I think mutual respect is necessary for all athletes.

What do think about what Johnny says? Personally, I think he was a very good point, as I also have to admit I found Chan's comments "disrespectful" and unnecessary. However, should it be like that? That Joubert has the edge of many more years of competition and so Chan is not allowed to voice his opinion, however harsh it may be, about him? After all, Chan beat Joubert at least twice last season (Trophee Eric Bompard and Worlds). Or is Johnny right that you should be respectful to your "elders"?

French Masters

2009-09-14T18:02:00.001+01:00

I was unfortunate in that so far all of the French Masters I've been able to see is Brian Joubert's long program, and even that was without sound. Hopefully the videos will make Youtube soon. Anyway, I comment on this because I think Joubert is going to do well this season. He's definitely got the drive, as this will be his last Olympic shot. His performance from French Masters may show a lack of consistancy (he falls on the quad toe, for example) but in terms of a program it seems fantasic. It is choreographed by Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski, which might have been a controversial choice given Staviski's recent "troubles" but the choreography is great. Joubert seems to have got some really graceful, almost balletic choreography which, apart from his "Hallelujah" exhibition, is a bit of a departure from his usual macho style. Furthermore, his spins have really improved, which is undoubtedly a result of his recent coaching from Lucinda Ruh, the spinning expert. Joubert may not have the jumps completely solid, at least in that performance, but past seasons have shown that he starts off the season weakly and then peaks at Worlds (like many skaters do), so I believe he can do the same this year. I love this program, and I hope my opinion doesn't change once I actually hear it with the music,which is the piece "Overcome", a previous Yagudin exhibition program. It's known that Joubert is a Yagudin fan and one could deduce that he is trying to emulate Yagudin's Olympic success, perhaps? Either way, tell me your comments on the program.

Program of the Day

2009-09-11T13:50:00.001+01:00

Program for today comes from the recent Golden West Championships, and is Mirai Nagasu's new short program. Personally, I love it! It's set to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack but it's not a cliched cut of the music (unlike her Carmen LP, but that's another post...) Mirai's really got great speed now as she skates and the positions she hits on her spirals and spins are amazing, as ever. I'm excited to see her progression over the coming season, and I think she'll do really well.

Belbin and Agosto's Music

2009-08-31T17:04:00.001+01:00

They published their music on their website:

2009-2010 Season
Compulsory Dance:Golden Waltz and Tango Romantica

Original Dance: Moldavian Folk Dance

Free Dance: Ave Maria (Caccini:Sumi Jo), Stabat Mater (Rossini)

Thoughts? I'm a fan of this version of Ave Maria (listen to it here) and I think Tanith and Ben can do a good job, judging by their Tosca piece last season. I listened to Stabat Mater on Youtube and thought it was really nice, though obviously it depends which section they use. This music seems to say "It's our time for the OGM" and personally I think they can do it!

For those of you who haven't been on Belbin and Agosto's website, I would say it's the best website of any senior figure skaters, so definitely have a look.

Music Clash Round 2

2009-08-16T11:41:00.001+01:00

For this next round of Music Clash I've chosen what has to be one of my favourite pieces of over-used music; the soundtrack to The Mission. Many skaters have used this music, especially the Gabriel's Oboe section, but today I'm just focusing on the use of it for ladies' short programs - in this case, between Alissa Czisny and Carolina Kostner.

For me, this one was definitely a runaway for Alissa; her spiral sequence in the program was fantastic and her cut of the music managed to include a lot of different sections without feeling erratic. She also seemed to have a much better interpretation of each part of the music than Kostner and Czisny's program seemed less rushed. But I'm sure many will disagree with me - what do you think?

I've embedded both programs below. I tried to find the best performance of each but Youtube would not let me embed many of Kostner's programs, such as her gorgeous performance from 2006 Europeans, so I had to settle for the one below from 2006 Worlds, which was less successful for her.

Round-Up

2009-07-28T07:59:00.001+01:00

First piece of news; Lambiel is returning to competition!

"I feel really good, both physically and mentally, and I am determined to take on the Olympic challenge and score a top result in Vancouver," the 24-year-old said in his comeback announcement.

Lambiel held a short press conference on Sunday at the Zurich airport before boarding a flight to Toronto, where he will train for two weeks with Brian Orser, coach of world champion Yu-Na Kim and two-time world junior champion Adam Rippon.

After this trip, the skater said he plans to return to his regular training base in Geneva to work with longtime coach Peter Grütter.

However, it's not going to be easy for Lambiel:

In Lambiel's absence, the top Swiss man at the 2009 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, Jamal Othman, did not qualify for the free skate and failed to secure an Olympic spot for a Swiss male skater at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Therefore, Lambiel will compete at the Olympic-qualifying event, the Nebelhorn Trophy, in Germany from Sept. 23-26 in order to gain his country a spot.

In other news, "The Ice" show took place in Japan last week - check out John Kerr's Facebook or Tanith Belbin's Twitter for pictures.

Evan Lysacek also did what can only be described as a fantastic, if a little racy, set of modelling shots. He looks absolutely amazing, definitely a fallback career for him! The pictures can be viewed on his site, and there are some others at the DNA models website.

Jennifer Kirk also posted a new, informative blog about the quad, which was definitely interesting to read, even if you do not necessarily agree with her opinion.

Hope that's a good enough round-up; in a day or two I will be posting Youtube videos of all the new programs that have been performed so far, to give you a taste of next season!

Evan Lysacek's music choice

2009-07-13T16:50:00.001+01:00

Lysacek's LP music will be....Scheherazade.

This music choice gets a bit of a thumbs down from me, I have to say. Evan isn't exactly know for picking unique music (he's used Carmen, Tosca, Bolero and Gershwin medleys in the last few years) so maybe we shouldn't expect too innovative. But this announcement from Lysacek just cements my view that this Olympic season is going to be a lot of the same old, same old when it comes to music choices. We've already got a Scheherazade this season (Zhang/Zhang), 3 Romeo and Juliets (James/Bonheur, Sarah Meier and Kimmmie Meissner),3 Carmens (Dube/Davidson, Mirai Nagasu and Ross Miner) and 3 Phantom of the Operas (Patrick Chan, Weaver/Poje and Yukari Nakano)

I can see why skaters pick such music which has been used repeatedly in the past. They know it is going to be successful, as it has been skated to many times before, and the Olympic year is not the one where skaters want to take risks. Furthermore, it is easier for the audience to get behind music if they recognise it, so from thatperspective tried and tested music is a winner.

However, it seems that the negative aspects of using overused music totally outweight the positives. Firstly, it is easy for skaters and judges alike to make comparisons between the skater and those who have skated to it before; for example, though I'm sure Meissner and Meier will both be successful in their interpretations of R&J, doing it at the next Olympics after Sasha Cohen's iconic OSM-winning LP to the same music will lead to comparisons. This could also even lead to criticism for Meissner and Meier, as IMHO neither can emote quite like Cohen did, and this will clearly be demonstrated when they use her music, albeit to a different cut. The other problem with using famous music is that it instantly conjures up thoughts of the skater who "made it their own". After all, who watched Lysacek's Bolero SP without thinking of Torvill and Dean? I bet you no-one. And that is why some music is better off left alone and should be retired.

What do you think? Are the music choices this season unoriginal, or should skaters be allowed to be given the opportunity to interpret iconic music?

New Skating Blog

2009-07-06T16:09:00.001+01:00

A blog written by a former competitive figure skater is always going to an interesting read, and Jennifer Kirk's, the 2000 World Junior champion, is no exception. Her latest blog entry covers the issue of skating eating disorders, and it makes sobering reading. Kirk says:

I saw a skater eat the cheese off of a Cheeto and then throw the leftover chip on the floor of the tour bus in order not to ingest any carbohydrates. I found leftover vomit in the toilet. A skater once told me that they had almost missed the finale because they were busy throwing up their dessert in the bathroom, and another told me that their coach was more weight-obsessed than they were and told the waiters at restaurants that she was allergic to butter and oil in order to make sure no fat would touch her lips. The chatter of non-fat, low-carb, splenda vs. real sugar never ceased.

She also admits to an eating disorder which she attributes partly to her involvement, as well as her retirement from the sport. The post is almost brutally honest, and discusses how many skaters suffer from an eating disorder. I think it should be compulsory reading for all skaters, to show them that actually there is a negative side to skating that they should be aware of.

The full article is available here. Program of the Day is Kirk's 2001 Hershey's LP.

Michelle Kwan takes to the ice again

2009-07-03T18:19:00.001+01:00

Michelle Kwan had been mentioning a comeback recently with little conviction, but this announcement will get people talking about it as a real possibility:

Five-time world champion Michelle Kwan will join Kim Yu-na at Ice All Stars 2009.

IB Sports, Kim's agency, announced Thursday that the American star figure skater has confirmed her participation in the ice show, scheduled to take place from Aug. 14 to 16 in Seoul.

It will be Kwan's first action since she quit the sport due to a hip injury in 2006.

All I have to say to this is...wow. This seems to be a literal message from Kwan that she is ready to get back on the ice and take on the best; I'll believe an actual competitive comeback when I see it but this seems like a logical starting point. Maybe she'll take that TBA spot at Skate America, maybe not. In my opinion, Kwan, as 9-time National champion, has "had her time"; her career was one of the most impressive of any skater in history, but I believe it will be difficult to her to keep up with the younger skaters, though inevitably Kwan has the dubious advantage of extensive experience on her side. However, I believe she should be pleased with her lot and give others, who have been solidly training and competing in the seasons up to these Olympics, their chance to shine.

I might not be pro a Kwan return but you can guarantee many other skating fans will. This is a show that fans will be stoked about, to say the least, - on internet forums many people seem to be prepared to fly from America just to see this, at obviously considerable expense!

Aside from Kwan's appearance, it's going to be a fanatastic show anyway:

American Evan Lysacek, Jeffrey Buttle of Canada and Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel, who have won each of the men's singles titles over the last four World Championships, will perform along with world silver medallist Joannie Rochette of Canada and Turin Olympic winner Shizuka Arakawa of Japan.

What are your thoughts? Comment below. Full article is available here.

Alternative Careers For Skaters

2009-06-30T21:27:00.001+01:00

Occasionally I think - what would certain skaters have excelled at if they hadn't been skaters? Some instantly spring to mind - for example, I think Kimmie Meissner's sweet personality would make for her being a great junior school teacher, weirdly.

The one career that many skaters would be great at is modelling, and a prime example of that is Tanith Belbin. She recently did a photo shoot with the fashion photographer Seth Sabal (who has shot models such as Miranda Kerr, better known as Orlando Bloom's girlfriend), and the rest of the pictures are up on her website here. The photos are fantastic, and she looks really gorgeous - the photos are very striking. Tanith actually Tweeted about the shoot:

pics from spring shoot up on our site.Don't be alarmed!I think they photoshopped about 20lbs off me!

Anyhow, she looks great. Follow Tanith on Twitter here and me here.

What Makes Your Favourites Your Favourites?

2009-06-29T20:16:00.001+01:00

Somebody asked me the other day why I loved Brian Joubert with almost religious devotion. They argued that "There are better jumpers than him, far better spinners than him, skaters with better music choices, better artistic skills, better step sequences.." And so the list went on. So this made me begin to think; why do we (the obsessive skating fans) love our favourite skaters so much? Of course we initially chose it on their skating style and ability, but is there more to it than that?

For example, Brian Joubert, IMHO, is pretty attractive; does this affect my love of him, or would I be just as big a fan if he wasn't attractive at all. Is there some sense of patriotism? I love France, and have always have done, but I'm British, and so don't support Candice Didier, for example, in the same way I do Joubert.

After thinking it over, I came to the conclusion that it's the whole package, for want of a better cliche. Individually his skating style, the strength of his elements, his looks etc might not be perfect, but put it all together and in my eyes, he is.

I'm going to end this self-indulgent post by asking you who your favourites are and why. We'll be back to proper news posts tomorrow, I promise!

With Respect

2009-06-26T21:03:00.000+01:00

....Program of the Day is what, in my opinion, was the best skating program set to the music of Michael Jackson. A number of skaters, including Emily Hughes and Ben Agosto have commented on his death on Twitter.

Rochette addresses Peru poverty

2009-06-25T19:12:00.001+01:00

I think this has been slightly overlooked in the skating world and I'd like to draw attention to it - Joannie Rochette recently went to Peru for a week. She brought back some heart-wrenching stories:

Rochette said the one time she was overcome with emotion was when she met a single mother of three children who was so embarrassed by the state of her home that she didn't feel worthy of Rochette's visit.

"She took me in her arms and started to cry. That really touched me because that lady really wanted to make a good impression on me. Even if they don't have much, they give everything... It was hard to see this woman fighting through her life [to survive each day]," Rochette recalled.

The trip, as well as helping to draw attention to the issues that people in Peru have, helped Rochette get some perspective on her skating:

"There, just having food for their next meal is great and I complain when I fall on my triple Lutz, so just seeing that was really different," said Rochette, 23, who used one week of her planned three-week vacation from skating for the journey to Peru.

I think this was a fantastic thing for Rochette to do; in the build up to the Olympic season, it's easy to get wrapped up in your goals and your training. This trip obviously had positive effects for both Rochette and the communities she gives. As celebrities, albeit minor ones, go, skaters seem to be hugely altruistic.

Full article is avaliable here It also discusses her preparation for next season and her sponsors; was anyone else aware she was sponsored by Molson beer?! Alcohol and figure skating - doesn't seem like the most logical combination!

US Men - Update

2009-06-21T09:23:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post to update you on Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek and Jeremy Abbott.

EVan has a new journal up - it's pretty interesting, though littered with references to his many sponsors! You can read it here.

Johnny Weir has also posted a new jounral - his is longer and more personal, covering his emotions after his disaster at this year's Nationals all the way up until today. He also gives some hints about his music, which sounds...interesting to say the least! Read it here.

Jeremy Abbott has also released his music choices:

SP Music: A Day in the Life by The Beatles

LP Music: Jupiter from Gustav Holst's "The Planets Suite"

Also, on another note, Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin who represented Azerbaijan have retired, citing the impact on financial and physical pressure in skating.

Music Clash

2009-06-17T21:42:00.001+01:00

...is a new regular post I'm going to be doing. The concept is simple; I'll post two (or more) very different programs but with the same music, and you leave a comment to which you prefer.

Today, I'm talking about the Amelie soundtrack; personally, I believe the music to be just gorgeous.Many skaters have performed to the music, but I've just chosen two. Who skated to it better; Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto or Sarah Meier?

My personal preference is for Meier; the delicate nature of the music perfectly suits her gentle and graceful style. I also felt the music reflected her personality somewhat better than it did for Belbin and Agosto; however, make up your own mind below.

Skating vs School

2009-06-15T16:28:00.001+01:00

There have been a number of skaters recently who had decided to sit out the upcoming season to devote themselves to their studies (Brittney Rizo, Katrina Hacker) as well as some who have prioritized skating over school (Emily Hughes). Many have, and continue, to manage both (Alissa Czisny). This poses a very interesting question - what should get priority? It's difficult to have a proper college experience if you're constantly training, and in the same way it's hard to train properly, especially when you get to National level or higher, if you're constantly having to catch up on assignments. So it's seems like a natural decision to take time off from school or work part-time/from home to get in the necessary amount of training. This technique has worked for a number of skaters; both Michelle Kwan and Sarah Hughes have recently achieved university degrees at 28 and 24 years old respectively.

However, does this all-to-simple conclusion actually hold a large number of drawbacks? By being at the rink whilst all their peers are at school, elite skaters are missing out on some valuable experiences, and some might say a proper childhood. Going to school is could be deemed too be necessary for them to have some sort of escape from the sport and to associate with people who aren't skaters.

Obviously it depends on a skaters' circumstances, but if you were an elite skater (or the parent of one) would you take the route of Hacker or Hughes? Personally I would be more inclined to do as Emily Hughes does; her attempts to balance skating and a full college course last season had very little success, and school will always be there in the future, whilst the probability of being a successful skater declines with age.

Image from people.com.

Hmmm...

2009-06-11T15:22:00.001+01:00

You'll notice that since I've put the blog back up I haven't posted anything - this is because there has literally been no skating news! As soon as there is, you can guarantee you'll hear it here first. In the meantime, check out my Twitter:

www.twitter.com/kateletangerine

If you look down my friends' list, you'll find a huge number of elite skaters who twitter, including Tanith Belbin, Yu-Na Kim, Emily Hughes and Adam Rippon, so make sure you follow them, as some of their posts are fascinating.

I'm Back!

2009-06-08T18:36:00.000+01:00

That's right, Ice Addiction's hiatus is over! And what skating news I've missed! I'm not going to cover it, as many of the other skating bloggers have covered all of the issues sufficiently, but I will be posting daily about all sorts of things, as skating doesn't stop in the off-season. First post coming up soon.

Good News and Bad News

2009-05-07T18:16:00.001+01:00

The good news is that Sasha Cohen is returning to competitive figure skating! Check out Axels, Loops and Spins for the details.

The bad news is that this blog is going on a brief hiatus. With exams, I just can't post as often as I'd like to, but they'll be over in a month and we'll be back to daily updates. If you need to contact me in the meantime, email km-28@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Splitsville

2009-04-30T18:14:00.001+01:00

At the end of every season, there's always some partnership break-ups, and this season is no exception. Firstly, Tiffany Vise and Derek Trent have ended their partnership;

After six years together, Tiffany Vise and Derek Trent have decided to end their competitive partnership.

Trent has chosen to retire from competition, while Vise has formed a new partnership with Don Baldwin. She will continue to train in Peoria, Ariz., under the tutelage of Jill Watson.

"We are thankful for the time and success we had as a team and will continue to support each other in the future," commented Trent. "We want to thank U.S. Figure Skating, our fans, coaches, families and friends for their wonderful support over the past years."

Also, somewhat more shocking, the French ice dance team Pernelle Carron and Matthieu Jost have ended their partnership, citing "incompatibilité d'humeur" or irreconcilable differences for the split. Carron has already found a new partner, Lloyd Jones, a young British skater whose previous partner, Danielle Bennett, skates at my rink! It's a small world in skating. Anyway, reports say that they almost broke up before Worlds; Matthieu is a father now and reported wants to concentrate on his family. Hopefully this will be a successful partnership; Jones has very little experience on the senior stage and so it'll be interesting to see how they fare next season.

Another skating baby....or two!

2009-04-29T16:12:00.002+01:00

Within days of Isabelle Delobel announcing her pregnancy, it has come out that Tatiana Totmianina is pregnant with twins...and the father is Alexei Yagudin! Apparently they are engaged, and the babies are due to be born in around October/November. Congratulations to both of them!

In other news, the US has announced their Team Envelopes:

Team A
Ladies: Alissa Czisny, Rachael Flatt
Men: Jeremy Abbott, Evan Lysacek, Brandon Mroz, Johnny Weir
Pairs: Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker
Dance: Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, Meryl Davis and Charlie White

Team B
Ladies: Becky Bereswill, Alexe Gilles, DeeDee Leng, Mirai Nagasu, Ashley Wagner, Caroline Zhang
Men: Ryan Bradley, Stephen Carriere, Richard Dornbush, Armin Mahbanoozadeh, Ross Miner, Adam Rippon
Pairs: Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski, Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig, Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, Tracy Tanovich and Michael Chau
Dance: Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein, Madison Hubbell and Keiffer Hubbell, Kim Navarro and Brent Bommentre, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani

Team C and the rest of the press release can be read here.

Skating; going mainstream, one gossip blog at a time

2009-04-27T20:50:00.001+01:00

Perez Hilton, the "Queen of All Media" whose infamous gossip site gets astronomical hits, just posted a version of Johnny Weir skating to Lady Gaga's "Pokerface". The program had previously been posted on both his site and this one, but it was a very low quality performance. Now, it is a much better quality video and really shows how great this program is. It's dramatic, dynamic and most of all a really fun routine. It's also great to see Johnny enjoying himself after what can only be described as a shocking and disappointing end to last season. It's not specified, but it's believed to be a performance from the current Festa on Ice show; as you'll see, the audience absolutely lap up the performance.

Weir making his way on to Perez Hilton's site with such a glowing review means good things for the sport; the more skating is publicised, the better the TV coverage will be, for example. This is what Perez posted:

It has finally been professionally filmed!!!
U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir just performed the most faboosh version of Lady GaGa's Poker Face at an ice show this past weekend.

The makeup! The outfit! The moves!

And he sold it.

Love. Love. Love!!!!!!

We know the Lady would approve.

Lysacek and the Lakers: Just a bunch of champions

2009-04-27T15:35:00.001+01:00

Evan Lysacek will bve presenting the first ball at the LA Lakers game on Monday. It's fantastic that becoming world champion opens these doors for him.

Evan Lysacek and the Lakers practice in the same facility, the Toyota Center in El Segundo. They've won major titles as the result of their performances at Staples Center, where the Lakers won three NBA championships and Lysacek last month claimed the world figure skating championship.

So it makes sense for Lysacek, an Illinois native who has enthusiastically adopted Los Angeles as his home, to share the floor with the Lakers -- if only briefly -- before they resume their first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz.

Lysacek will be introduced at the game Monday and will present the game ball for the opening tipoff, a well-deserved honor. It will also be a rare occasion when he's surrounded by athletes who are taller than he is: He's about 6 foot 1, extremely tall for a figure skater.

Recycling, skating style.

2009-04-26T21:15:00.002+01:00

Program plans have already sprung up for next season, and so far the consensus seems to be that there is going to be a lot of program recycling. Brian Joubert is keeping his SP, Dube and Davison are going to use their Carmen LP again, Vanessa James and Yannick Bonheur are going to keep their Romeo and Juliet LP and Patrick Chan will be keeping one of his programs, though it's yet to be confirmed which is which. And that's just for starters, as there are so many more skaters who won't be confirming music choices for a while.

Personally, I think Olympic season means new programs. Maybe the economic recession is affecting skaters (I read in an article that Tugba Karademir could only afford to have one program choreographed per season, as it is so expensive.) However, it's highly unlikely that that's the reason. Is it unreasonable to pick music, get good choreography and learn two new programs for an Olympic season, and should I be appreciative that we'll get the opportunity to see those programs again? Discuss.

Delobel to become a mother

2009-04-22T17:16:00.001+01:00

That's right, Isabelle Delobel is pregnant! She's due to give birth in September...and her and Olivier still plan to go to the Olympics in February.

"At first we were stunned," said Schoenfelder who is married and the father of an almost 3 year old son. "Of course I congratulated Isabelle and then we wondered how we could go on towards the Olympics."

"It is a matter of organization," Delobel added. "Obviously, as time goes by, it will be more and more difficult to train. But with the help of everyone, we will manage it."

They've already made preparations for next season:

They have already crafted next season’s original dance off the ice with choreographer Michel Durand and will adjust it on the ice in the coming weeks.

"In early June, we will work on the new free," Boucher-Zazoui (their coach) revealed. "Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon (2006 World silver medalists) will help us craft the program in Lyon. When Isabelle will be unable to perform the lifts for example, Marie-France will substitute."

Can Delobel be ready in time for the Olympic Games next February? She will miss the French Masters (scheduled for mid-September in Orléans) and the first ISU Grand Prix legs, including Trophée Eric Bompard in Paris (which will open the Grand Prix season in mid-October).

"During the ISU Grand Prix management group meeting in Vancouver at the end of May, we will ask for them (Delobel-Schoenfelder) to skate as late as possible for their assignments," Didier Gailhaguet, the president of the French federation, conceded. "If they are not fit enough, the following event on their agenda could be the French Nationals (mid-December in Marseille) and the Europeans in Tallin (Estonia) mid-January 2010."

Honestly? Medalling in Vancouver, or even getting to Vancouver, seems like a very long shot now. But congratulations to Isabelle! The entire article is also avaliable here.

Looking to next season already...

2009-04-21T17:19:00.001+01:00

It might seem awfully soon, but the truth is that this season is over and every skater needs to start thinking about the next one. Through the fantastic medium that is the internet, I spoke to Natalie Pechalat whilst she was at the World Team Trophy. She and Bourzat have already decided what they are doing for their free dance next season; she says it's very different and she hopes that audiences will like it. I also mentioned the Grand Prix season next year, specifically Trophee Eric Bompard, and she said that she hopes to be going to Paris next year, as it's been a long time since they competed there. In light of this conversation, today's Program of the Day is Pechalat and Bourzat's FD from this season; an innovative, fun number which boasts elements reminiscent of Torvill and Dean's Barnum number.

In other news, the Cumberland News recently wrote an article on David King, who skates with Stacey Kemp in pairs for Great Britain. It highlighted a lot of facts which may have not previously been known by their fans;

David said: “I was never the best in my club, I just carried on putting quite a lot of hard work in and now I’m reaping the rewards.

“I think not being a stand-out star pushed me.”

But David needed more than perseverance to succeed, he needed sponsorship which proved impossible to find. Luckily, his own determination was matched by financial dedication from mum Angela and dad Michael.

“I couldn’t have done any of this without them. There’s no funding in the sport, I’m completely funded by my parents,” he said. “They’ve supported me every step.

“They’ve had to put their life on hold for years.”

The rest of the article can be found here.

Apologies and Updates

2009-04-17T17:39:00.001+01:00

Apologies for the lack of recent updates; however much I try to ignore it, sometimes I am forced to give school priority over skating. In a few short weeks it'll all be over and I'll be back to giving you daily postings, even if there isn't any news because it's the off season. Speaking of which, the last competition of the season, the World Team Trophy, is about half way through, with both the mens and ice dance medals being decided.

In the mens division, the Worlds pretty much played out again as Brian Joubert took the lead over Evan Lysacek in the short, but Evan narrowly beat his in the long program. Patrick Chan didn't perform quite up to par, falling on the triple axel, yet still got very large scores. The final results looked as such:

1 Evan LYSACEK USA 238.56 2 1
2 Brian JOUBERT FRA 237.09 1 3
3 Nobunari ODA JPN 229.25 3 4
4 Patrick CHAN CAN 217.98 9 2
5 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 205.05 5 5
6 Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN 198.91 6 6
7 Sergei VORONOV RUS 196.70 4 8
8 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 190.93 10 7
9 Jialiang WU CHN 183.86 8 10
10 Florent AMODIO FRA 182.32 7 11
11 Chao YANG CHN 177.94 11 9
12 Konstantin MENSHOV RUS 165.21 12 12

Here's hoping Kozuka and Abbott can pull it all together for next season; often it's all too easy to buckle under pressure, and if said pressure is taken off Jeremy next season then I'm sure he will perform a lot better than he has done in recent events.

In other events...in the ice dance, Belbin and Agosto win, with Virtue and Moir in second and a suprised Pechalat/Bourzat leagfrogging over a lacklustre Khokhlova/Novitski. Ever since their fantastic win at Worlds, they haven't quite managed to top that performance, which is a real shame as they have such talent and originality.

After the ladies SP, Mao Asada is in first with 13 points over Joannie Rochette, who double-footed a lutz in her usually stellar short program. Miki Ando is in third with exactly the same score as Rochette (62.08) with the two US ladies, Caroline Zhang and Rachael Flatt, in fourth and fifth respectively.
In pairs, Zhang/Zhang take first, with Kavaguti/Smirnov in second and the US newcomers Denney and Barrett in third. Dube and Davidson, the Canadians, are in fourth.

As for team standings currently:

1. United States of America
2. Canada
3. Japan
4. France
5. Russia
6. China

The pairs and ladies long programs are happening tomorrow; be sure to check in for the results. Alternatively, my Twitter account is updated far more regularly than the site, for obvious reasons, and can be subscribed to here.

In more celebrity-ish news, Nancy Kerrigan is going to be on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, whilst Johnny Weir's reality TV show, Be Good Johnny Weir, has been picked up by the Sundance Channel. If any skater would be entertaining enough to warrant a reality show, it's Johnny Weir, so I'm hopeful it'll make it's way to Youtube so the rest of the world can see Johnny in all his diva-ish glory. This'll obviously take a lot of the financial pressure that he must have on him, which cannot be a bad thing either.

Program of the Day

2009-04-10T13:53:00.001+01:00

Today's program is the SP of a skater who isn't yet topping podiums, but definitely shows huge potential to be doing so in the future. Ana Cecilia Cantu is from Mexico, and has fantastic flexibility, great originality; check out her forward sit spin position! Her jumps aren't bad at all, and if she improves her speed across the ice she'll start moving up. The music is from the movie Beetlejuice, and her choreographer is David Wilson. Enjoy!

Maths to make your head hurt

2009-04-07T17:12:00.001+01:00

Over at Ice Network, Sarah and Drew were looking at Yu-na Kim's fantasticly huge scores:

We were pondering Yu-Na Kim's exceptionally high, world record-breaking total score and wondering how she would have stacked up against the men. Since the men's components are multiplied by 2 in the free skate, and the ladies only by 1.6, and since men are allowed eight jumping passes instead of seven, we had to bust out the calculators!

If you multiply Yu-Na's components by 2 instead of 1.6, they would be 85.50, so her total score for the free skate, exactly as she performed it in L.A., would have been 148.69, and her overall score would have been 224.81. This would have earned her fifth place in the men's free skate, sixth overall. But since she would have been able to do an additional jumping pass, we'll give her a conservative 3.85 (the value for a double Axel in the second half). This is a guessing game, of course; who knows whether she could add another jump and land it. We think she could.

If she did, even with 0 GOE, she would have had 228.66 in total and finished fifth in the men's competition. Yet another very impressive statistic from Yu-Na.

That's how amazing Kim is. Watch her SP and LP below and judge for yourself.

Program of the Day

2009-04-05T16:23:00.001+01:00

Program of the Day is my favorite performance from the whole of the World Championships. It moved me to tears, and that doesn't happen a huge amount with skating programs. It's Meryl Davis and Charlie White's free skate to "Sampson and Delilah"; absolutely, just perfect. It's an absolute travesty that they didn't make the podium!

Props to those performances that almost won; Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy - short and long programs, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's FS, Evan Lysacek's LP, Brian Joubert's SP and both Joannie Rochette's performances. There are so many more...what are your favourites?

Another Day, Another Bit of Joubert News

2009-04-03T20:02:00.001+01:00

That was quick; after being dropped by Jean-Christophe Simond, Brian Joubert has found a temporary solution to being coachless.

"For next season, before the Olympics in Vancouver, I'm staying in Poitiers. I want Laurent Depouilly to remain at my side and Tatiana Tarasova to be my choreographer."

And there you have it. Depouilly is going to be temporary coach for Brian for the next two weeks, through the ISU World Team Trophy, which is April 16-19.

Depouilly coached Joubert in 2004 and 2005, during which time the Frenchman won his first European gold medal. In 2005, however, the duo split. Joubert thought Depouilly was not professional enough, and Depouilly argued that Joubert was not practicing hard enough.

Is it a good idea to go back to an old coach after that trust has been lost? It's been a long time, so obviously it must just all be forgotten, but there has to be better options for BriJou.

After this first two-week period, the French Federation has plans to ask several skating experts to coach Joubert in all aspects of his skating -- spins, steps, choreography and artistic impression. Their names remain unknown, though.

I guess we'll have to see how Joubert fares at the Team Trophy and wait in anticipation of these elusive coaches' names. One thing's for sure; they're going to have to be spectacular if they're going to get him back on course for Vancouver.

Despite these decisions having been made, Joubert and Simond are still snarking at each other. In this article, Joubert says that Simond was only around at his rink for 125 years, and Simond obviously thinks Brian is lying, and speaks out pretty strongly about it:

"To say that it had become unbearable and that I was only around for four months of the year is a gross lie," he said.

"You must think before saying such things. I really feel betrayed. I don't understand why you'd look to destroy someone rather than just saying that you want to change coach.

"It's really a rotten thing but I don't want to argue. He's probably been badly advised."

Enough already!

The full IceNetwork article quoted earlier can be read here.

Worlds Post Part Two + Some Brian News

2009-04-02T19:00:00.001+01:00

Before I get started with the Mens Awards from the Worlds, I just have to mention that Jean-Christophe Simond has dropped Brian Joubert, and so Brian is looking for a new coach. Unfortunately, the relationship did not end on good terms; Brian said that Simond did not believe him when Brian had boot and blade problems earlier this season, and in response Simond said all sorts of horrible things...it's really quite messy. IceNetwork have posted a very long article about it and the possible options Brian will have for a future coach, which can be read here. It's really not a great time to change coach, especially with the Olympic season on the way, but there was definitely problems between Simond and Joubert so he had to leave. Brian has said that he does not want to leave Poitiers, calling it "treason", and this is obviously a big mistake. He needs a really great coach if he's going to get that elusive OGM, and no coach is going to move to Poitiers. Who do you think will be his new coach? Tarasova seems to be the most likely option and I think that'd be great; personally I think Orser would be fanatastic but unlikely, especially after Brian's relationship with Kurt Browning.

Anyway, on with the Mens Awards!

Best LP: It's got to be Evan Lysacek, hands down. To win the mens' world championship in his hometime after a dodgy Nationals must have been fantastic for him, and was definitely amazing for all those watching. The emotion on his face in the last minute, and the crowd rising to their feet during his last spin...what a memorable moment. Curse or no curse, he's going to be quite a force to be reckoned with in Vancover. And with the might of Coca-Cola behind him as his new sponsers, he's going to be pretty much unstopable.

Most Heartbreaking Moment: Brian Joubert's LP. The disappointment on his face after his hideous fall on a double axel, of all things, was just supremely depressing.

"One to Watch" for the Future: Denis Ten. Wow, wow and more wow.

Best Comeback: Nobunari Oda - after missing the last season, he came back with a great SP, despite his dive into the boards, and the emotion he showed after the LP reflected the great performance he gave.

Biggest Diva: Until this season, Patrick Chan had been the perfect gentleman. However, his comments to Brian Joubert regarding the quad, which included him branding Joubert "a sore loser", were unnecessary, and just made him look slightly childish in the face of Joubert's mature responses.

Biggest Meltdown: Okay, so it wasn't a fully-fledged meltdown. But everyone expected huge things from Jeremy Abbott, so it's still sad that he didn't perform to the best of his ability. Abbott is so talented, with a bit more experience he'll definitely be on the podium in the future.

Skater who was overlooked: Takahiko Kozuka. He's absolutely adorable, and so fantastic, but really, IMO, deserves better marks. Hopefully the judges will wake up soon!

Worlds Post Part One

2009-03-30T14:47:00.001+01:00

Well, the skating season is basically over!. And what a season we've had. As you may have guessed from the title, this blog is dedicated to the Worlds. There's been so much drama this week that only a really long post can cover it all, so I've split it into each discipline.

I'm going to do "awards" for each discipline, starting with the Ladies

Most Unexpected Meltdown: This is the most obvious award - poor Carolina Kostner. After her fall at the Europeans, where she lost her title, everyone assumed that she would come back on fighting form and be in with a chance of a medal position. Having to skate straight after Kim's fanatastic performance can't have been easy, and she obviously was seriously lacking in confidence as she started to skate. Overall, her LP was absolutely heartbreaking; one landed jump, one fall, one hand down and the rest of her jumps were popped. Huth looked very dismissive of her as she sat in the Kiss and Cry and a 12th place finish was definitely not what she was looking for.

Most generously marked: Yu-Na Kim. Both her and Brian Orser's shock at both sets of he marks were adorable to watch but they were the only ones who it suprised. She was absolutely amazing, however, so perhaps only a slight overscoring. Also, Rachael Flatt's short program put her ahead of some much more deserving skaters; a bit of home bias, shall we say?

Best SP: For me, Joannie Rochette. Her short program is just so fantastic and she really deserved her silver medal.

Best FS: It's got to be Yu-Na Kim, there's no real way around it. Her performance was just magical, even with the screwed salchow.

Best Costumes: Joannie Rochette. Both her SP and LP dresses are classically beautiful yet simple enough that they don't detract from her performance.

Skater that "wuzrobbed": Mao Asada; yes, she had a fall, but to land one triple axel and attempt another and STILL not get on the World podium is pretty much a travesty.
Best Kiss and Cry Moment: It's a three-way tie of the emotion that Sarah Meier, Elene Gedevanishvili and Alena Leonova showed after their free skates.

Best Comeback: Elene Gedevanishvili! Who would have expected her to skate as cleanly as she did after her track record? She's a huge talent and so it's definitely onwards and upwards for her. An hourable mention goes to Miki Ando; after last year's mid-competition withdrawal, no-one expected her to get on the podium.

Best "Fighter": Candice Didier. She had a hideous fall and slammed into the barrier partway through her LP; she was almost carried off by the medics. Despite obviously being in seriously severe pain, she finished her program. What a star.

Mens' awards are coming next. If you disagree with what I said (and I'm sure some of you will!) then leave a comment.

Steadily improving Rochette a dark horse

2009-03-23T14:36:00.001Z

Joannie Rochette was my prediction for a possible gold medal this week at Worlds and, apparently, someone over at The Globe and Mail feels the same.

It's been 21 years since a Canadian woman won a medal at the world figure skating championships.

Is it Joannie Rochette's time now? She is a dark horse for the women's title at this year's championships, which start tomorrow in Los Angeles at the Staples Center.

"I have yet to be on the world podium, and this is the first time in my life I've told myself I can really do this," Rochette says. "I feel like I belong out there this year."

The idea of Rochette standing atop the podium is definitely not fantasy, as her results so far this season have been fantastic.

At Skate Canada in Ottawa, Rochette defeated former world silver medalist Fumie Suguri of Japan by 25 points, rendering speechless Elizabeth Manley, the last Canadian woman to win a world medal (silver), in 1988.

Rochette went on to defeat reigning world champion Mao Asada of Japan by 13 points at the Trophée Eric Bompard in France in November. Asada wasn't perfect at that event, but neither was Rochette.

At the Four Continents championship in Vancouver in February, Rochette defeated Asada again in the short program. In the long program, Rochette defeated world bronze medalist Kim Yu-Na of South Korea, who is coached by Brian Orser in Toronto and reigns over the women's ranks this year.

When Rochette won the silver medal at Four Continents, behind Kim and ahead of Asada, she established herself as a major threat at the world championships. She's finished ahead of everybody who matters at various points of the season.

The article also touches on other possible contenders in the ladies division, highlighting the apparent weakness of the European contenders.

The Europeans did not participate in the Four Continents, but the women's event at the European championships was lacklustre. Laura Lepisto of Finland won the event with simple jump combinations over favourite Caroline Kostner of Italy, the world silver medalist from last year.

Kostner bombed in the short program and won the long program without getting credit for a spin. But Kostner's strong point is her speed, and she builds momentum over the season, usually peaking at a world championship. Judges seem to adore her.

Judges do see to award disproportionately high scores to Kostner, and I for one am not a fan of her skating.

The article also talks about Kim, the American representatives who'll be in LA and the contenders in the ice dance division. It can be found here.

Program of the Day is Rochette's LP from 4CC. If she can perform it as well as this at Worlds, Asada and maybe even Kim might want to watch out. It's suprememly graceful yet still retains the necessary power to do some fanatastic triples.

FYI, I will be posting about the World Championships, naturally, starting from tomorrow, but those posts will be brief as most of my free time will be taken up by watching it! In the next fortnight or so, however, there will be more detailed postings on all of the competition. I will also most likely be posting spoilers, so be prepared.

Predictions for Worlds - Ladies

2009-03-19T20:21:00.001Z

Ladies is possibly the most mundane prediction to do, unfortunately. It's pretty much a guarantee that it'll be a Yu-Na/Mao showdown in LA, and I'm leaning towards it being Yu-na's year. Her performances have been getting huge scores all season (she set a new world record of 72.24 points in the short program at 4CC) and she's definitely proved she has the assured consistency for a win. However, Mao is almost as like to defend her title, so it'll definitely be a two-woman race for the gold. Joannie Rochette also could get gold; she did beat Mao Asada at Trophee Eric Bompard this season, and came 2nd at 4CC. The European contenders are Carolina Kostner, who'll be hoping to bounce back from her second place finish at Europeans, and Laura Lepisto, who should be flying high on her surprise win there; there's always a chance she could buckle under the pressure, however. Miki Ando and Fumie Suguri will also be competing for a long shot at the podium, though frankly it's unlikely it'll get anywhere.

Program of the Day is Mao Asada's winning FS from last year's World Championships. Her comeback after she face-plants on that triple axel is quite astounding, a definite winners performance. Could she repeat it this year? You can watch it here. I always aim to find a video that I can embed but there is not a single one of her FS which does not have "embedding disabled by request"!

Versus

2009-03-17T17:27:00.001Z

Is anyone else gutted that there won't be a "Battle of the Great Gig(s) in the Sky" at Worlds? Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder has officially announced their withdrawal due to Isabelle's shoulder injury, which means that we won't be able to see how their FS shapes up against Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's. I've posted them both below so that you can compare which one you prefer. Personally? Much as I absolutely adore Tessa and Scott, I've got to go with Delobel/Schoenfelder on this one. I am, however, slightly biased as I did see D/S perform this live at Trophee Eric Bompard in November. I must prefer their cut of the music, their costumes and their cheoreography, though I have so much respect for Tessa and Scott for creating a routine which is so beautiful yet incredibly difficult technically.

The below performances should be a good comparison; D/S's performance isn't the best as Isabelle had a stomach bug, and V/M have little experience in performing this FS as Tessa's injury forced them to skip the whole Grand Prix season. Hopefully these two factors will cancel each other out.

Mens Worlds Predictions

2009-03-16T16:18:00.001Z

That's right; it's Worlds predictions time! With the World Championships starting in less than a week, hopefully all the last-minute withdrawals are out of the way and we can get down to deciding who'll top the podium. They're coming at you in installments, starting today with the mens competition.

To get an indication of where each skater stand to place, first it's good to look at the ISU World Rankings, which can be found here. From these rankings, the top three skaters in the world are Tomas Verner, Kevin Van Der Perren and Brian Joubert. I think one of those skaters will almost definitely be on the podium - Joubert. He's has had quite a hit-and miss season, coming fourth at Trophee Eric Bompard but getting a triumphant gold at Cup of Russia. Despite being beaten in the free skate by fellow Frenchman Yannick Posero, he won back his European title from Verner and so looks in good shape to also gain his World title again. Rumours have be heard on the internet that Joubert is injured; however, nothing has been heard officially so he's definitely a contender. However, Joubert unfortunately lacks the necessary consistency to pull off an assured win in LA.

Of course, it is impossible to mention the mens division without mentioning Patrick Chan, who has been getting absolutely massive PCS all season and took home gold at the Four Continents Championship, so he's also a definite medal contender.

My third choice to get a medal is Jeremy Abbott, the US champion who won gold at the Grand Prix Final this season. He's such a huge talent that if he skates well, he's got a very good chance of doing well, again if he can keep it consistent and pull himself together if the program doesn't initially go his way.

After those top three, the other contenders could be Evan Lysacek,who'll probably come back with a vengance after his disappointing Nationals outing, Nobunari Oda, who's come first in four competitions this season so far and probably would have won more had he been eligible and Takahiko Kozuka, who won Skate America and was third at 4CC.

Think the podium's going to shape up completely differently? Leave a comment! Ladies prediction coming in the next couple of days.

Program of the Day is last year's gold medal winning performances from last year from
Jeffrey Buttle, who proved that no quad doesn't necessarily equal no win.

Colorado-trained athletes on edge of world success

2009-03-15T20:44:00.001Z

The Denver Post just published an article about some of the biggest threats to veteran skaters; Jeremy Abbott, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker,Brandon Mroz and Rachael Flatt, who all train at the World Arena in Colorado. It must be a real fight for space on the ice with all five of them skating around, but imagine how amazing and motivating it must be for the other skaters!

"The atmosphere at the rink, I don't know if there's something in the water or what," Flatt said. "It's just great motivation for all of us to watch each other, push each other and do good programs."

As well as sharing ice space, many of them share a coach.

The coach who hit the mother lode is one Tom Zakrajsek, who coaches Abbott, Mroz and Flatt.

"In one respect it's not a surprise to have three skaters on the world team because they all work very hard," Zakrajsek said. "And we kind of plan for success, as crazy as that sounds."

The article also talks about McLaughlin and Brubaker specifically:

McLaughlin and Brubaker defended their national championship and won the 2007 world junior title. The difference this year is that McLaughlin, at 16, is finally old enough to attend senior worlds.

"And I'm getting my license next month!" said the Tarzana, Calif., native.

Brubaker is 22, and they've been together only three years, about half the time most teams take to reach the world championship level. They will be the youngest pairs team in L.A. yet have raised their components to fit the competition.

"It's been challenging," Brubaker said. "We've been learning so much, too. We're still considered the young kids."

The rest of the article can be read here.
Program of the Day is M/B's SP from Cup of China last season. They have some beautiful lifts and are showing definite improvement on their throw jumps; however, there is obvious development needed for their side-by-side jumps.

Evan Lysacek gets confidence boost in Toronto

2009-03-13T14:02:00.001Z

After his disappointing performance in the US Nationals where he finished in third, Evan Lysacek has just one more chance to perform his program as well as he can. And where better than in his home town, LA? An article about Evan has just been published on the LA Times site about his

Lysacek, twice a world bronze medalist and twice a U.S. champion -- but a dispirited third at this year's national competition -- believes she [Lori Nichol] worked her magic again during their sessions.

"She said a big thing this season is freedom," he said Thursday after a practice session at the Toyota Center. "There are so many intricacies in the program now that there's really few people who go out like 'I'm free as a bird and so glad to be out here.' Because you're constantly thinking and nitpicking at each and every element as you're going through the routine.

"But she said that's really important, so that's what we worked on, pushing out everything and gaining speed whenever I can."

Their labor seems to have paid off.

His coach, Frank Carroll, said Lysacek's ice coverage is much better. So are his speed and footwork. Those upgrades could lift Lysacek's program component scores, the marks generally referred to as the artistic scores.

Hopefully this is the boost that Evan needs to get him back on the Worlds podium; he's such a great skater than it seems disappointing that he's currently not performing his best.Nichol, along with David Wilson, is one of the most talented and well-known choreographers out there and Evan has the technical ability, so hopefully this will pull up his PCS and get him the placement he deserves.

The rest of the article is available here.

Program of the Day is Evan's FS for this season, a Gershwin medley from the US Nationals. The music isn't the strongest piece he's ever picked, but the newer costume is definitely better than the sparkly penguin he wore at the beginning of the season. If Evan can nail that quad, and if he has really improved his PCS as the article claims, he'll have a good shot in LA.

Gregory/Petukhov to work with Plushenko

2009-03-12T18:47:00.001Z

News just in; Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov, the 2004-2007 U.S. ice dance silver medalists, are going to be choreographing Plushenko's long program for the 2009-2010 season. Plushenko has been training every day apparently and with Melissa and Denis's choreography he will definitely increase the hype around his comeback. He really sounds serious this time, despite the fact that he has been "announcing his comeback" a few times now.

Program of the Day is one example of the extraordinarly beautiful cheoreography that Melissa and Denis have done, in the exhibition program they did with Johnny Weir to "Fallen Angels". To make three skaters work together so seamlessly in a program requires real talent; Plushenko is in good hands.

Program of the Day

2009-03-11T18:16:00.001Z

Program of the Day goes to Patrick Chan, the stupendously talented young Canadian who everyone's eyes will be on in LA. Lori Nichols, his choreographer, recently spoke to Ice Network about Chan.

Nichol's work with Chan in creating his high-scoring Tango short program and Rachmaninov long played a major role in his success right out of the gate last fall, but, truth be told, Chan spent several weeks "playing" with movement to the Tango before he embraced Nichol's musical choice.

"No diva whatsoever in him" is how Nichol describes the 18-year-old Canadian men's champion who turned heads whenever he stepped on the ice this season.

"He's such a great mix of athlete and artist. I just feel honored to work with him," said Nichol, whose own star rose in the late 1990s as the choreographer for American superstar Michelle Kwan.

Program of the Day is Chan's amazing SP from Canadian Nationals. I'm sure he'll do amazingly at Worlds in a couple of weeks.

Program of the Day

2009-03-09T13:52:00.001Z

Today's program is a bit of a patriotic one, I'm afraid, because today's skater is Jenna McCorkell, the six-time British ladies champion who finished in ninth at the Europeans. Jenna recently had an article written on her at the Coleraine Times (Coleraine is her hometown, though she now spends her time in Belgium and Coventry). Now, an article on a skater isn't usually a big deal, but for Britain this is a pretty rare occurrence. Over here, ice skating gets almost no coverage in the media, unless it's an article about Torvill and Dean; and let's face it, it's been 25 years since their Bolero performance and STILL the UK hasn't moved on. So it is with great pleasure I present the article on Jenna.

"I've learnt a few things from the Euros in Helsinki – I put my neck on the line and took a lot of risks which meant I got no points for some moves and it cost me in the end," she said.
"In America I am going to rein a few things in and play it a bit safer, because in hindsight that is what I should have done in Helsinki.
"I obviously will be working on my free programme and rearranging things so the same mistakes don't happen again.

"Qualification for the Olympics is up for grabs – I think you have to be in the top 24 to secure your place in Vancouver but I should easily make it into the top 15.
"It used to be a lot stricter in previous Games but they have eased the reins. There is one more chance to qualify after the Worlds but I don't want to think about that because in many ways you have to win it to guarantee your place."

Look out for Jenna in LA; she's not going to get on the podium or anything but I saw her last year at Art on Ice skating with her husband, Kevin van der Perren, and she was great. I like her confidence and ability to know exactly what she needs to do.

Today's Program of the Day is Jenna's SP from Europeans this year, which left her in fourth. If she can get her long program up to the standard of this great short, she'll definitely be moving up next year.

Both Jenna and Kevin van der Perren have great websites, which are regularly updated with lots of personal pictures, so I would suggest you give them a look for mor information on the pair.

Oh, and thank you to Aaron over at Axels, Loops and Spins for the shout-out! Definitely check out his blog; he speaks frequently and knowledgably on all sorts of skating-related issues.

Another admin thing; thank you everyone who's reading my blog. If you've got anything you like or don't like about it, feel free to leave a comment. Constructive criticism would be great.

Program of the Day

2009-03-05T17:31:00.001Z

Rachael Flatt is under a lot of pressure to perform well at the Worlds in a few short weeks so that America can gain back three ladies' spots for the Olympic year. Sensibly Rachael has got someone who knows what it's like to have the eyes of America watching you; Dorothy Hamill.

Rachael announced today that 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist Dorothy Hamill will mentor her on her road to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Hamill chose to work with Rachael due to Rachael's consistency, work ethic, and bubbly personality — all of which are reminiscent of Hamill's career over thirty years ago.

Hamill will be helping Rachael both on and off the ice and will act as a support system and advisor on how to deal with the challenges of being at the top of a sport that is immensely popular during Winter Olympic years.

I think that this will be great; Rachael has a lot of nice elements to her skating but this help from Hamill will definitely improve and inspire her.

"I'm thrilled and honored to be working with a legend like Dorothy," Rachael said. "Her outgoing personality and endearing smile touched millions of Americans in a way that I can only hope to emulate. Dorothy is an amazing role model and I look forward to learning from her experience of handling the pressure of being 'America's Sweetheart.'"

I have difficulty believing that Rachael actually wrote that herself, but the sentiment is there. Rachael's career seems to be really taking off in the States;
In addition to working with Hamill, the sixteen-year-old partnered with MAC Cosmetics, who will be providing her makeup through the Olympics, and Reading Is Fundamental, the nation's oldest children's literacy organization.

The new Kerrigan, Kwan or Cohen? I think for Rachael this is definitely within the realms of possiblity.

Program of the Day is her LP from Nationals. It's a technically strong performance, but hopefully working with Hamill will develop her artistry, posture and speed in her spins. Props to her for the absolutely gorgeous dress though!

Program of the Day

2009-03-04T16:55:00.001Z

Sarah Meier recently did a very interesting interview with Absolute Skating around the time she was doing the Art on Ice shows. The main subject of discussion is her health, and unfortunately, it's not great news.

How is it going with your injury?
It’s Ok. Now it is not getting worse which is already a good sign.

The problem was with your spine, right?
No, actually the problem is in my right hip. First doctors thought that it’s in my back, but now they are sure that it’s in the hip.

I also heard that you might need a surgery...
Yes, maybe. But we’ll really try to avoid this if it’s possible.

It's awful that she probably won't be at Worlds; her presence was really missed at Europeans, as personally I think she's the best European ladies skater; so graceful yet with all the technical ability. Sarah comments quite frankly on the results of this year Europeans in the interview:

I liked pairs’ competition, Alyona and Robin… I also enjoyed watching ice dance. But I didn't enjoy singles much. I think Carolina had to win this. No, I’m really happy for Laura, too, but I think that Carolina should have won. The judgment decision was really strange.

The rest of the article can be found here.

Program of the Day is Sarah Meier's LP from last year's Worlds. Her artistry and emotion in the performance is just incredible, and at a level that is rarely seen in skating nowadays. Also an inspired music choice, which suits her perfectly.