Post-Season Slump

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.

Over and out

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!

Media Madness

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

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.

formspring.me

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

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

Bloggers - Being Respectful?

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?

Ladies Long Program from China

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

Rochette addresses Peru poverty

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!

Worlds Post Part One

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

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

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"!

"What Women Want: Champion figure skater Joannie Rochette on Valentine's Day"

The National Post has a short but sweet interview with Joannie for Valentines Day (slightly late I know)

Just back with a silver from the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, Joannie Rochette needs a break from those triple Lutzes and training for the Worlds in March and the 2010 Games. Maybe some foot-rub tiime with her boyfriend, Olympic-medallist, short track speed-skater Francois-Louis Tremblay on Valentine's Day? The two athletes met competing for Canada at the 2006 Games in Torino.

Q: What don't you want to get for Valentine’s Day?
Joannie Rochette: No chocolate or roses — unless it's a flower he picked himself. I like something that lasts. Chocolates, I'll just eat them, and the flowers would die. Earrings would be nice.

Q: What do you want?
Joannie Rochette: Earrings would be nice. Francois-Louis won't be back in time for Saturday. He's away competing [on the World Cup circuit where he won gold in the 500 metres in Sofia, Bulgaria last weekend]. He's the romantic one. He's a great cook, so maybe he'll make me brunch when he's back on Sunday — crepes and salad.

Q: What do you think you'll get?
Joannie Rochette: I have no clue. No jewellery, though, because he thinks I have too much already. Maybe gloves, because I lose my gloves all the time.

I love her honesty and realism - she's right, the flowers would die. For this, Joannie gets Program of the Day here at Ice Addiction, with her SP from 4CC this year.