State of the Skate

Where Do Broken Hearts Go: Sale/Pelletier, 10 Years Later

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:21:00 +0000

Funny how February, as short of a month as it is, always seems to bring plenty of recollections with it. You can insert a favorite old Valentine’s Day story here…or a new memory of where you were last Saturday when you heard Whitney had passed away…

Or, of course, a weather-related tale is always a possibility—just last year we had a humdinger of an ice storm here at the top of February, and it resulted in my young daughter getting stitches in her chin after falling on our super-slick driveway. Hmmm, ice… that brings me to one more thing that creates a lot of February history.

This month is the 10-year anniversary of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. It’s also the 20-year anniversary of the 1992 Games in Albertville, the 40-year anniversary of the 1972 Games in Sapporo, and the 60th (!) anniversary of the 1952 Games in Oslo. But for all that Dick Button, Janet Lynn, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Paul Wylie brought to the sport from their respective Olympics, we all know that 2002 brought something very different—something that still manages to eclipse Sarah Hughes’ surprise gold, and especially Timothy Goebel and (sigh) Michelle Kwan’s respective bronze medals.

Maybe I say that from a slightly skewed perspective because as long as I’ve been checking on the “most viewed” posts at State of the Skate—a couple years running—there has been one post that has, almost exclusively, remained the most popular above some 500+ others possibilities. It’s this one, about Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. The post is not about Skategate specifically (you know; the nickname for the game-changing judging scandal that involved their Olympic free skate), or Sale/Pelletier’s wedding in 2005, or even the son that resulted from that union in 2007. The post was primarily about their 2010 announcement of plans to divorce, yet continue skating together professionally… and some of the comments that followed shared the sadness (especially after seeing the former couple at Stars on Ice), while others speculated on the reasons for said divorce.

I remain intrigued every time I take note of how many readers—not just in Canada, but worldwide—take a look at this particular article. Are they learning what they wanted to learn about them? I wonder. Are they disappointed at the lack of “dishing” (except for the comments of others)? Did something new happen with Sale/Pelletier that I should know about?

The answer to that last question is, well, sort of. This variation on the catching-up-with-the-Pelletiers article that ran in last week’s Globe and Mail indicates that, for better or worse, their on-ice partnership may now be all but over as well. Not because they can’t get along; the article points out on page two that they remain friends, and seem to get along professionally as well as they ever have. But the days of insane figure skating popularity were (let’s face it) already on borrowed time when the 2002 judging scandal broke out. Sale/Pelletier’s ebullient performances helped propel the love a little longer, but they simply aren’t getting the kind of offers (financially speaking) they used to. Is that because they can’t draw the audience of yesteryear… because fans don’t see the kind of magic they did when they were in love? Possibly. Is it because of the sport’s waning popularity? Probably.

But for them, it simply seems time to turn the page.

“I’m tired of being cold,” Sale says in the new article, her words perhaps carrying more meaning that the layperson might think. “I don’t like the rink anymore.”

As I wrapped up the chapter in Skating on Air that dealt with the events of Salt Lake City’s pairs event, I used a quote from an NBC producer/director that indicated the events from 10 years ago were “must-see TV” at its finest. I then mused that it wasn’t long after 2002 when the slogan might’ve been better suited to be “I’ve seen enough TV,” given how ratings for figure skating dropped significantly.

With any luck, though, even the most cynical fan will always keep a warm place in their memory trove for Sale/Pelletier. Their personal story, like their professional one, didn’t quite go according to plan. But nothing and no one can take away how their hard work once captivated the whole world.

(Less than) "Breathtaking" 2012 4CC Observations

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:41:00 +0000

True confessions time: I've barely watched a minute of the 4CC’s ice dance yet, and am still catching up with some of the ladies and pairs’ free skates. So that may explain why this list of observations is men-heavy… or maybe there was more to notice there anyway?

Let’s start with the medal summaries:

MEN—Patrick Chan opened up what I thought was a questionably wide lead over Daisuke Takahashi in the SP, but definitely earned his overall victory when it came to his free skate. Dice-K easily took silver, while Ross Miner claimed his third major bronze medal of the season… just edging out Adam Rippon.

LADIES—Ashley Wagner skated like the new champion she is, and (in what is surely one of the bigger upsets of the season to date) won gold over Mao Asada—who is back on the triple axel trail, in case you haven’t heard. Caroline Zhang was surely more than happy to claim bronze, repeating an honor she also earned two years ago.

PAIRS—As I thought they might do, Sui/Han pulled out all the stops (including an oh-so-close throw quad salchow) and got their first international senior title. What I didn’t expect was to see not one, but two U.S. pairs joining them on the podium! Newly crowned U.S. champions Denney/Coughlin took silver, and Marley/Brubaker proved their world team berth was no fluke by taking bronze—their first international medal, I believe.

DANCE, which I at least read about—Virtue/Moir won this round of the cagematch, beating Davis/White by about three points. And some 16 points behind D/W was Weaver/Poje, who bested The Shibutanis for bronze.

As for some standout observations, here's what comes to mind:

Jeremy Ten’s free skate program. I haven’t seen much of the Canadian this season, what with previous injuries keeping him from any GP participation and all. And unfortunately he didn’t skate very well here (he fell three times in the FS alone, finishing 14th). But as programs go, his free skate to Il Postino was quite a lovely thing. Great music; elegant, nuanced choreography. With any luck he’ll keep it for next season.

Misha Ge—He first got my attention by using Saint-Saens’ The Swan for his SP (I don’t think I’ve seen a male skate to it since Weir and his red glove took it on back in 2005-6). He kept my attention with a passionate free skate, and punctuated his performance with some fierce footwork near the end. Representing Uzbekistan but actually of Russian, Korean and Chinese descent, Ge finished way down in 30th place at last year’s Worlds. If this 4CC 9th place finish was any indication, he’ll make a significant move up the ladder when he gets to Nice in about 6 weeks.

Battle of the Non-Russian Skaters Using Russian Folk Music: In this corner: USA’s Adam Rippon and his Korobushko SP… where he nailed his 3axel, but slipped on the exiting edge of his Rippon lutz and took the fall that helped keep him from challenging for bronze. In THIS corner: Tatsuki Machida of Japan and his Dark Eyes SP… where he definitely outskated Rippon… only to tank in the free skate and wind up 7th overall.

Reliable Ross—So are those skaters whose first name starts with an “R” destined to be known first and foremost as “reliable?” Of course their skating has to do the talking first… Rachael Flatt’s certainly used to, and now it looks like Ross Miner is picking up where she left off. His programs remain quad-free for now, but he’s a steady-eddie on most everything else... even when skating in that unenviable “final” slot. Yes, I’d have preferred to see Rippon get that bronze, but without a doubt Miner earned the hardware last weekend.

Nan Song & the oxygen tank (sounds like a great band name, huh?)— I’m sure there are other major competitive locations that pose big trouble for the AC (altitude-challenged) crowd, but Colorado Springs is perhaps the best-known (in North America anyway). The free skate always tells the tale; if a competitor breaks at the waist within milliseconds of hitting their final pose, look out. Several fit that description this year, but China’s Song was the only one I saw actually receiving emergency oxygen from a medic in the Kiss’n’Cry! Yikes. Unfortunately his troubles took him far away from his early season GP triumphs as he came in 11th—his worst 4CC finish in the three years he’s been competing it. Call it a different kind of "breathtaking" skating.

"Come on, put your hands together": I heard this sort of thing quite often as the PA announcer tried to encourage a seemingly sluggish crowd to support unknown skaters (and there are plenty of those at 4CC). Does this happen at any other senior event? I wish it wouldn’t happen here. It makes me feel like I’m back at a tiny regional competition, trying to encourage a little speck of a skater who just had a rotten performance and looks like she’s about to cry her eyes out right there at center ice. Please, folks! He or she is probably well aware that Asada and Chan are going to get the biggest and best of the applause. Don’t patronize them. They can take it! (Or not, as the case may be.)

Dice-K’s “sanity”: Assuming that, as they did at U.S. Nationals, skaters got to choose the music that played between the previous competitor’s program and their own… it sounded like Takahashi opted for Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain” to pump himself up. Heh. Loved it. Would love it more if it was a thinly veiled message to the judges regarding some of their Chan-flated scores… Heh. Heh-Heh.

Dornbush’s redemption delayed: The demons that drilled Richard Dornbush’s Nationals SP into a sad series of missed jump passes may have taken a slight break during his free skate there, but they returned in full force for the 4CC journey. He finished 13th here, just as he did at Nationals. A rough end to what must’ve been a disenchanting season.

A few words about Kwak Min-Jeong: Remember her? The kid sister-like counterpart to Kim Yu-Na when the Korean team when to Vancouver two years ago? She did pretty well back then (13th!), but has had a rougher time of it ever since… even finishing down in 6th at her own recent Nationals. But she at least managed a clean SP here… and while her 10th place finish was her worst in three trips to 4CCs, it would be nice to see her manage a Caroline Zhang-esque recovery in the next couple of years.

Amelie Lacoste vs. Cynthia Phaneuf—Eighteen-hundredths of a point. That ended up being the difference between these two Canadians, between 7th and 8th place, between who goes to Worlds and who watches it from home. How much would that fraction of a difference show up in a track or swim meet? It’d probably be a toe… or a fingertip. Amazing. Here’s hoping Phaneuf uses the downtime to make a positive, well-thought out decision about her future in the sport.

At least Phaneuf had 4CC as that one additional chance to prove herself this year… according to this recent Phil Hersh article , U.S. Figure Skating was responsible for at least two 4CC “snubs”—something we’ll take a closer look at soon.

Four Continents 2012... a Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:21:00 +0000

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I’m always a little ambiguous about Four Continents. I know it’s intended to be a sort of non-European European Championships, and it allows the world to see more skaters from Australia, South/Central America, and Africa (yes, we have one entry from South Africa this year) than they would anywhere else… but when competing against skating powerhouses like Japan, Canada, China, and (oh, yeah) the U.S., it always seems more than a little lopsided.

But let’s look on the bright side regarding who’s there this year:

+ Virtue/Moir and Davis/White, who get another face-off before heading to Worlds
+ Weaver/Poje and the Shib Sibs, who will presumably have their own face-off for the bronze medal
+ Richard Dornbush, who, on the strength of last year’s Worlds (if not this year’s overall placement at Nationals), was called in to replace a hip-injured Jeremy Abbott
+ Patrick Chan and Daisuke Takahashi, arguably (?) two of the best male skaters in the world right now
+ Mao Asada, who gets a second chance to “warm up” before Worlds after having to withdraw from the GPF a couple months ago
+ Still relative newbies Marley/Brubaker, who need all the international experience they can get after snaring a spot at Worlds over Evora/Ladwig
+ All the “almost world team members,” for whom the season might otherwise already be over (e.g. Jeremy Ten, Evora/Ladwig, Agnes Zawadski, etc.)
+ And in what might be the most compelling sidebar of this event, at least as far as Canadian fans are concerned… recent champ Amelie Lacoste and former champ Cynthia Phaneuf are vying for the sole Canadian female entry at Worlds, with the job going to, I believe, the best finisher at 4CC.

It all starts tonight at 8:45 Eastern time with the men’s short program, so here go some predictions…

MEN
GOLD: Chan
SILVER: Takahashi
BRONZE: Nan Song (China)

Mr. Chan, all I ask is that if you win, please do it without becoming a human Zamboni this time. Thank you.

If Song isn’t skating with the same technical brilliance as earlier in the season, it would be lovely to see Adam Rippon win bronze.

LADIES
GOLD: Kanako Murakami (JPN)
SILVER: Asada
BRONZE: Ashley Wagner

This could be a Japanese sweep (Haruka Imai is beautiful to watch), but I’m still crossing my fingers to see Ashley skate strong enough to medal… hopefully while trying out the new combos she wants to add to her programs.

PAIRS
GOLD: Sui/Han
SILVER: Takahashi/Tran
BRONZE: Duhamel/Radford

Is this Sui/Han’s last senior event of the season? If so, I think they could skate lights out over everyone else, including the two couples listed above.

DANCE
GOLD: Davis/White
SILVER: Virtue/Moir
BRONZE: Weaver/Poje

I think D/W will just keep doing what they’re doing—winning—while V/M refrain from pulling out all the stops just yet. They’ll save that drama for Worlds.

Oh, one more thing: If anyone remembers Christopher Caluza, who competed at U.S. Nationals last year… he’s now competing for the Philippines, and will be at 4CCs tonight. How about you?

Great-But-Mostly-Unseen Performances of 2012 Nationals

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:11:00 +0000

The irony here is that most of the following are so far only available on IceNetwork… and therefore may continue to go Mostly Unseen by some of you. But if you’ve got that IceNetwork subscription burning a hole in your pocket and you’ve no idea how to catch the highlights that have little to do with the medalists… you’re in luck.

(If you DO find a post to any of these, though, please share!)

PAIRS:

Gretchen Donlan/Andrew Speroff -- SP to O Mio Babbino Caro
With a fine 3twist, nice lift positions, and a pretty throw 3sal, I was impressed with this relatively new senior pair. They came in 5th with this performance, and 4th overall.

Mary Beth Marley/Rockne Brubaker – SP to Singin’ in the Rain
It’s music from one of my favorite musicals of all time, so I may be biased… but they created one of the best surprises of Nationals with this performance. (Even if Brubaker had to put his free hand down to steady a death spiral.)

LADIES

Haley Dunne – SP to a variation on Tosca
Skating relatively early in the lineup, Dunne pulled out good jumps (though the back end of her 3T/3T was probably underrotated), a great layback position, a solid tuck on her flying sit, and really nice emotion that helped endear her to the audience. No wonder they booed when her score was only a 51.41. (She was 12th in the SP; 16th overall.)

Kiri Baga—FS to La Strada
Four out of five successful triples (she popped her lutz) helped young Miss Baga rise above a sea of subpar jumping to finish 10th in her senior debut.

Sophia Adams—SP to Tim Janis’ Music of Hope; FS to Titanic
She finished way down in 17th place—primarily because she lacks the top triples, and barely completed any of those she DID have in her FS—but when her blades were on the ice rather than in the air… that’s when I liked her work.

Angela Wang—FS to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I mentioned Wang last time as the most notable up-and-comer among the new senior ladies… this program, with 2 clean 3lutzes and 3 other successful triples, led me to make the note “I really like her and this program… very good jumping; above average everything else.”

MEN:

Jonathan Cassar – FS to I Pagliacci
In the world of unseen skaters, Cassar must be some kind of royalty. Now in his mid-20s and seemingly unable to perform a triple axel or triple/triple in competition, Cassar may never find his way into the Top 10 men at Nationals… but as a certain commentator would say, “What he DOES do he does very well.”

Scott Dyer—FS to Grand Canyon Suite
On the other hand, Dyer was also sans triple axel in this event, but managed to hold down 10th place this year with a six-clean-triples free skate. And with me he also gets bonus points for an innovative combo spin, great posture and carriage, and a lovely sweeping nature about his skating overall.

Joshua Farris
I’ve no program listed because, frankly, Farris didn’t have a great Nationals (he finished 16th)… but I wanted to mention a wickedly awkward moment when, just as we saw Farris getting off the ice and hugging his coaches, Farris’ former coach Tom Zacrajek stood off in the distance, staring straight ahead. Though they failed to mention it during any of his performances at Nationals, it was his performance last year (when Tom Z. was his coach) that ultimately had him skating on a broken fibula. Obviously he’s physically healed from that trauma, but still left Tom Z. behind shortly thereafter. Zacrajek was standing in the aforementioned shot because his current student (Brandon Mroz) was next to skate… and presumably he had his full focus on Mroz. Still…

Adam Rippon SP to Korobushka
(OK, so this is admittedly a SEEN skater. Humor me here.)
This was the kind of SP that fills me with joy, but worry tries to supplant the joy as I wonder if he’ll be able to skate it that well again the rest of the season. The most important thing, though, is that this time there actually is a rest of the season for Rippon. So I’m going to pretend not to care if he peaked with that one. Because it was AWESOME.

ICE DANCE:

Kriengkrairut/ Giuletti-Schmitt FD to Walkin’ in the Sand

Quick poll here: should we refer to them in the future as K & G-S or Lynn & Logan? Because I see more GP assignments in their future at the very least, and I’ve gotta get them a nickname. Anyway, I’ve got to admit I’m not a huge fan of their FD music because this particular arrangement gets a little redundant—there’s THIS tempo, and then THAT tempo, and THIS one again, and THAT, and oh-look-here-comes THIS again… etc. But it was still refreshing, and different, and certainly beats the Popera option so many have employed. Plus, they have some killer innovative lifts (as evidenced in both performances). With D/W and the Shib Sibs presumably locking up 1st and 2nd until further notice, it would be great to see a few different teams win bronze. Let’s hope this team is one of them.

Chock/Bates FD to Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor

It was finally time to see which of the new dance partnerships of the past season turned out on top… and while Hubbell/Donohue emerged victorious in that regard, I’ve still got my eye on Chock/Bates. I wanted to dislike them on some level, actually, out of some sort of surely misplaced sympathy towards Emily Samuelson. But I can’t help it… these two created a couple of slinky, sexy, and fun dances this year and skated them with a confidence and assurance that was quite appealing.

Lichtman/Copely FD to Austin Powers

Though they only came in 10th for their senior debut, these two channeled a little bit of Navka/Kostomarov from 7 or 8 years ago and came up with a fun way to splash into the deep end of the icy pool.

Next up? Predictions for 4CC (if I can get them posted before things get going!)

The Way Outta San Jose: Nationals Post-Mortem, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:09:00 +0000

So what I’ve decided to do this year is put some of my Nationals analysis into a pithy faux awards list. Hope you approve… even if some of the recipients might object!

The Persistence Pays Award: a tie between Ashley Wagner and Caroline Zhang

So we had Wagner in 3rd and Zhang in 4th after the SP. For Wagner to skate a clean short at Nationals was practically unheard of, so when she nailed it I figured she was on to something. Zhang was another story—several times in the past couple of years I’ve watched a solid enough short of hers, only to see her go to pieces (new improved technique be damned) in the free skate. While I was pleased to see her do a fine SP here, presumably giving her hope for the skate yet to come, I admittedly watched her step out of her opening FS jump and thought Oh dear, here we go again. But no! She didn’t go here… she swerved and went there! The place where young skaters go to get vindicated for years of unsatisfying results! And while it wasn’t her best finish ever at Nationals, I hope that little pewter medal they give for fourth place feels good as gold.

And as you might know, I’d only predicted bronze for Wagner… I’m afraid I’d become a member of the camp that thought she was destined to go no higher. In fact I thought bronze would be a victory in itself, considering how far she’s been from the podium at times in the past few years. But, bless her heart, she had other plans. She also had “help” from a faltering Agnes Zawadzki, who did a remarkable impression of Agnes 2010-11; the one who blazes through her SP but burns herself in the FS… and a frustrating Alissa Czisny, who I’m hoping will channel these disappointing performances into best-of-season work at Worlds.

I was also impressed with Wagner’s precise answers to questions about “having what it takes” to do well at Worlds: get the triple/triple back in her SP, fix the edge call on her lutz once and for all, etc. Pulling all that off is another story, but I liked that she pulled no punches about the relatively simple content of this winning free skate.

The Surprise, I’m still on the Podium! Award: Ross Miner
A show of hands, please: who thought both unexpected medalists from last year would be able to repeat in 2012? I thought one of them might, but I didn’t count on it being Miner. Not that he isn’t a fine athlete and competitor, but for me he still lacks a certain spark and identity. (As it happens, I saw a glimpse of him just before taking center ice for his Untouchables FS… with his dark costume and pale hair and complexion…and thought he was Jeremy Abbott.) Would he have a bronze medal this year if Richard Dornbush had not imploded during his SP? I’m not so sure.
But he did… and Miner didn’t. High props to Miner for that. As for “Ricky”…

The Funny-and-Sad-at-the-Same-Time Award: The Facebook post by Dornbush this past Wednesday night… ‎

… Got back on the ice today, Mucked around a bit, Tried a short w/ no warm-up, clean, coach wants to kill me now, me too, FML.

Sigh. Poor kid. I guess every now and then someone has to Oda their SP … but he’ll be back.

The What Does a Girl Have to Do to Get a Medal Around Here? Award: Christina Gao.

When you finish 5th at your first senior Nationals, you’re a head-turner. When you repeat that position the following year, you’re “consistent.” But when you remain in 5th place for three years… she seemed happy enough with her performances (which included a lovely triple flip/triple toe, thank you very much), but the head-turner might be a bit of a head-scratcher now, wondering how much farther she can realistically climb in the next two years… especially with an acceptance letter from Harvard awaiting her reply.

The Movin’ on Up Award (Men): Doug Razzano

Some skaters start- and finish- their Senior Nationals career in the Top 10. Some start and finish without getting anywhere near the Top 10. Razzano’s first Senior appearance, in 2008, left him in 16th place. Then up to 14th in ’09. Then down just a bit to 15th in ’10. Then up to 10th last year. And fifth this year. (Not to mention a solid 7th in his GP debut at Skate America a few months back.) At age 23 now, I’m curious to see how much higher he can climb in the next two years.

The Movin’ on Up Award (Ladies): Angela Wang

With so much shuffling among the same five ladies in the past five years—Czisny, Nagasu, Flatt, Wagner, and Zhang— it’s not easy these days for a new name to sneak into the mix. Zawadzki managed to do it last year, though, and the one who succeeded most this year was probably 15 year-old Wang. The fact that she landed a Top 10 finish her first time out (she was 8th) is even more impressive considering she only managed a 7th place finish in Junior Ladies a year ago.

The Happy Just to Be Here Award: Daniel Raad and Aimee Buchanan (tie)

If the names don’t ring a bell, there’s good reason: neither of them were originally scheduled to compete in San Jose last weekend. But when Samantha Cesario was forced to (yet again) withdraw, there was still time to get an alternate, and that alternate was Buchanan—the fifth place finisher at Eastern Sectionals. And likewise, Daniel Raad was tapped to fill a Nationals vacancy when Alexander Zahradnicek had to bow out of the event. Both had little time to prepare—especially mentally—and, perhaps without surprise, both finished the event in dead last. Would you feel good about unexpectedly competing in front of thousands of people at Nationals, even if you weren’t at your best (as I suspect was the case with Buchanan)? For their sake, I hope so.

The Sparkles, Gloves, Hair and Eyebrows Award (men): Johnny Weir

NOTE: I have NOT watched his commentary during the free skating yet; based on what I read in the comments, my opinion might change once I’ve done that. I’ll let you know…

Who else could we possibly be talking about? He made a small appearance on NBC’s coverage, but had a much bigger presence when it came time for him to do IceNetwork commentator duties alongside Tonia Kwiatkowski and Mike Mancuso for the men’s event (the same one he says he’ll be competing in one year from now). I don’t know about you, but I can’t say I was a fan of this setup. Weir did well, I thought, when he sat around the Universal Sports set and dished about Worlds with Peter Carruthers and company back in 2010. But those were small doses compared to this… comments that were 1/3 about the skating, and 2/3 about the amount of costume “sparkle,” the athlete’s hair, or the athlete’s eyebrows. Ay-yi-yi—is that really all he has to offer?

The Sparkles, Gloves, Hair and Eyebrows Award (women): Sarah Hughes

And this is where the “gloves” come in… for during Vanessa Lam’s free skate, out of nowhere Hughes voiced great fascination in the elbow-length gloves that Lam wore as part of her costume. (Apparently she hasn’t watched a lot of Russian skating lately.) But no one else did, and the comment fell flat. It was part of a very mixed bag that came with Hughes’ presence—sometimes she was helpful (e.g. explaining the benefits of selling a jump), and other times she seemed painfully out of place (“Are we (the commentators) allowed to stand up and cheer for a skater? I don’t even know…” she wondered on-air.) And as was also mentioned in the comments, her overall delivery wasn’t quite there yet; she sounded more like she was sitting around casually talking with friends at home, particularly alongside the crisper-sounding Kwiatkowski. (Frankly it kind of sounded like I do when I'm interviewing someone by phone... which sounds nothing like my "voiceover" voice, I can only hope.)

So I guess I can’t really call myself a fan of IceNetwork’s version of stunt casting this time around… I thought Tonia K. was doing fine on her own.

(I reserve the right to strike and/or rewrite that last sentence depending on how I feel after watching ALL the IceNetwork coverage.)

More observations to come… looks like I’ve somehow only covered the singles skating so far.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:51:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Way to San Jose, Part 2: The Predictions

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:23:00 +0000

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

PAIRS PREDICTIONS:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:05:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

SENIOR PAIRS

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

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

SENIOR LADIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SENIOR ICE DANCE

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

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

SENIOR MEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Predictions coming Wednesday!!

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:21:00 +0000

The second half of the season is upon us!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:14:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:35:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:12:00 +0000

Updates, as promised, on two recently completed Nationals…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:36:00 +0000

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

JAPAN

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

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

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

Elsewhere around the globe:

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

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

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

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

We Have A Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:41:00 +0000

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

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

Last Chance to Win a Copy of Skating on Air!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:39:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PAIRS

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

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

DANCE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le 2011 Grand Prix Finale At-A-Glance

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:55:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LADIES: Tuktamysheva, Kostner, Suzuki, Czisny, Leonova

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the weekend of skating, everyone!

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:16:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck!

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:58:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:36:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LADIES…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011 Rostelecom Cup of Russia Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:56:00 +0000

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

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

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

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

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

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

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

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

8-10 p.m.: Free Dance

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

MEN—

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

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

LADIES—

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

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

PAIRS—

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

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

DANCE—

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

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

Enjoy your final stop on the regular GP tour…!

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:30:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011 Trophee Eric Bompard Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:02:00 +0000

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

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

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

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

10:45 a.m.: Pairs short program

12:15 p.m.: Ladies short program

2:00 p.m.: Short dance

Saturday, Nov. 19

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

9:30 a.m.: Pairs free skate

12:30 p.m.: Ladies free skate

2:30 p.m.: Free dance

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

Saturday, Nov. 19

6- 8 p.m.: Pairs & Men’s Free Skate

9-11p.m.: Free Dance

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

The competitors look like this…

MEN—

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

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

LADIES—

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

PAIRS—

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

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

DANCE—

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

Bon chance!!

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

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:58:00 +0000

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

HITS…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MISSES…

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

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

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

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

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

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

NHK Trophy 2011 Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Kelli Lawrence) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:06:00 +0000

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

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

On Ice Network.com (subscription required):

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for the competitors…

NHK MEN—

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

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

LADIES—

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

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

PAIRS—

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

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

DANCE—

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

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

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