Because Skate America is more interesting than writing an essay...

As Skate America approaches (it's October and that means skating in 23 days...and reasons for me to procrastinate), I was thinking about the ladies competition there and decided to write this pretty random post full of my musings.

Basically, the ladies competition is completely stacked. You've got the upstarts from only two years ago (now, because this is figure skating, viewed as the old veterans), Yu-Na Kim (who's been held back by injury but finally seems healthy again), Miki Ando (what happened?), Yukari Nakano, and Kimmie Meissner (the reigning SA champion looking for some redemption this season). I'm interested to see what they're going to end up doing. I don't really know what to say about Yu-Na except that I absolutely adore her skating, but hate that we haven't really seen her full potential--she never managed to put down two clean skates last year, but she's also been hampered, perhaps more than any ladies skater out there right now, by injury. She's made the wise decision to not attempt the triple axel ever in competition, but, honestly, if this girl skates to her full potential, I don't think that she'll need it. There is also Miki Ando, who followed up a stellar 06-07 season with a dismal 07-08 one. She hasn't changed coaches, as seems to be the trend with the Japanese skaters this season, but she has hopefully dealt with her injury problems. Miki can be one extreme or the other--extrememly brilliant or painful to watch. She's rumored to be nailing quad sals in her program run-throughs, but we've been hearing this for awhile...and have yet to see it in international competition. And, of course, we can't forget about Yukari Nakano--I think that anyone watching Worlds last year thought that the girl was going to do the seemingly impossible and beat Mao Asada for the gold and then stared at the marks in complete disbelief as she settld for fourth place. It was small deductions that cost her a medal, but you can't deny that she has talent...even though her habbit of wrapping her foot on ALL of her jumps makes me cringe. She doesn't seem to have much support from the Japanese Federation either, which can't make things easy on her.


And then there's Kimmie, who I think deserves her own paragraph. She won this competition last year (her first GP gold) and then went on to win silver in France...and then crashed and burned for the rest of the season for "personal reasons" that haven't been made public (which, I think, is most certainly her perogative). Recent interviews have shown her looking happy with her new coaching situation in Florida with Richard Callaghan and Todd Eldridge. What problems she's been having seemed mental to me (nothing else really would have caused that sudden downfall in her skating), and she did look a lot better at Worlds after her coaching change, results aside. As an American, I'm rooting for her--remembering how it made me feel to watch her win her world title in 2006 is enough to keep me supporting her. Plus, I don't think that you'll find a sweeter girl in the entirety of the sport.

Those are the veterans...now for the American upstarts. After the Kimmie self-destructed at US Nationals last year, she not only opened a wide door for the young girls who medalled, but also left them with huge shoes to fill. While we've excelled at many aspects of the sport, it is the ladies competition that the US is truly known for...and is Mirai Nagausu, who was too young to even qualify for senior Worlds, ready to step into the position that greats like Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi, Dorothy Hamill, and Peggy Flemming have occupied? Maybe yes, maybe no--we'll probably get to see it this season. There's also World Champion, Rachael Flatt (I don't mean to be too biased, but I am just not a fan...her skating just doesn't really interest me at all), who enters the competition armed with triple-triples (not as gorgeous as Yu-Na Kim's, but still impressive for such a young skater. It actually reminds me of Kimmie a bit).

And, because this is figure skating, it's never a good idea to fully count out the rest of the competition. Mira Leung, who's placed second at Canadian Nationals for the past few years but has never really made a splash on the world scene, Yan Liu, Susana Poykio (part of a new era of skating in Finland), Annette Dytrt, Valentina Marchei (if she doesn't place, she always has the loving arms of her boyfriend to run to--this guy named Brian Joubert...I'm not sure if you've heard of him), and Tugba Karademir will all be competing as well.

Whew, this was a long entry.

And mostly full of rambling about a competition that's not going to happen for another three weeks. I can't help it...I'm excited :-)

Two of a Kind

After doing a review of what I'm looking forward to in dance last week, I've decided to give you my opinion on who I'll be watching out for in pairs this year. This isn't a comprehensive look at all of the pairs skaters out there--it's just who I'll be looking forward to watching/find interesting this upcoming season.

Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker
I'm so excited that these guys are going to be competing fully as seniors this year--Keauna is now old enough to go to Senior Worlds (which, judging from the state of pairs skating in the US, I think that they'll very easily go to). I think that they're going to make a huge splash on the senior circuit this year--last season was their senior debut, and they managed to medal in both of their GP events, made it to the GP Final, and then, to finish everything off, won gold at their first senior nationals. I have a lot of hope that these guys are the pairs team that the US has been looking for.

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy

They aren't my favorite pairs team, but they do interest me. After saying that they wanted to win everything last season, they almost did--the one exception being Cup of Russia. How will these new world champions fare in the coming season? Well, I don't know that...but they did seem to have a very good hold on the gold medal last season. There are a few up and comers, however, that I think they should be watching out for (for more on that, read most of the other blurbs in this post).

Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison
Can I just start out by being horribly biased and saying that I LOVE this team. My love began when they came back after that terrible injury that Jessica sustained at last year's 4CC (and they STILL do the side by side flying camels!) to skate at Worlds only a few weeks later. And then they lost the Canadian title this year, and then came back (that seemed to be a thing for Canadians last season...Jeff did it to) to go against all of the odds and won bronze at Worlds (with only a double twist!). This year, they're back and they've mastered the triple twist in the off season...what could possibly be better?

Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang
This [unrelated, by the way] team has the hugest triple twist in competition right now. They won silver at last year's worlds, and are a part of the Chinese pairs program that's come to dominate the sport in the past years. I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fans of these guys (I preferred the retired Shen and Zhao), but I will say that I do look forward to seeing what they come up with this season and whether or not the Chinese influx in pairs skating will hold through the 2010 Olympics.

Nebelhorn Roundup Pt. 2

Watch out world, ice dancing has officially landed in North America.


After placing second in the compulsory round of competition, Americans Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates placed first in both the original and free dances and, in their senior international debut, stole the show with an 8 point lead to claim first place. Alexandra Zaretski and Roman Zaretski, the winners of the compulsory dance, fell to second in the original dance and third in the free, but held on to a silver medal. Rounding out the podium with yet another medal for the US were Jane Summersett and Todd Gilles, who placed third.


In the ladies competition, American domination continued with a surprisingly consistant Alissa Czisny. Her inconsistancy makes watching her otherwise beautiful programs a nerve-wracking experience, but her patchy jumps seemed to have gone on hiatus...at least for this competition. It seems like working with the King of Consistancy himself, Mr. Brian Boitano, has helped her out a bit. She took the gold medal with a 12 point lead in the free skate, where she scored all level fours on her characteristically gorgeous spins. Laura Lepisto, the national champion from Finland, took silver with a few popped jumps, but otherwise good program, and Akiko Suzuki of Japan took the bronze.

Can you say USA?! Nice job, guys!

Nebelhorn Roundup Pt. 1

The pairs and mens parts of the competition are now done with, so I figured that I'd start my commentary a little bit early.

As far as the men are concerned, Nobunari Oda seems to be in pretty good shape--he won both the short and the free with a combined total of 224.67...not bad, but pretty far off of his personal best of 244.56 at NHK 2006. Of course, it is the very, very, very beginning of the season...so I'm not about to judge. He did manage to get all Level 3s and 4s on his spins and footwork sequences and landed a huge triple axel-triple toe that recieved +1.25 and was worth over 18 points. The guy who has me a little worried is Tomas Verner. I'm a big fan (and not just because I'm a teenage girl), but he isn't looking so good at the moment. He missed the podium by .33 points. Third in the short and fourth in the free? His countryman, Michael Brezina, beat him by about 23 points to claim silver (and landed 8 triples with no negative GOEs), and Yannick Ponsero came through to knock Verner off of the podium to claim bronze.


As far as the pairs, there really weren't any surprises. Savchenko and Szolkowy led in both the short and long. Their score was a little less than twenty points out of their personal best, but, again, it's only the beginning of the season. Hopefully they're set to be challenged this year by the up-and-comers in an otherwise rather disappointing (at least, in my opinion) field. They did receive quite a few negative GOEs in their long program, but, in the long run, their program components score helped them out.

Tomorrow will conclude the competition with pairs and ladies finals...so more on that later!

Since when was Nebelhorn so legit?

The Nebelhorn trophy will be taking place this week in Oberstdorf, Germany. I may be a little bit prejudiced, but I've always remembered it as the competition for people who were not quite "there" yet--the fifth through tenth placers at national championships who may or may not progress up in the ranks.

However, I'd be wrong if I said that about this year...seriously, when did Nebelhorn get so big?! This girl named Carolina Kostner is entering as defending ladies champion, as is Tomas Verner (love him!) on the mens side of things, and, in pairs, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy will be putting in an appearance after an almost perfect season last year.

Even though this competition isn't one of the big ones for this season (those start in about three weeks), I'd at least take a peak at the mens competition. Will European Champ Tomas pull himself together after a great season, but horrible LP at Worlds? How is Kevin van de Perren doing after his surgery? Who is Michael Brezina and should we be keeping our eye on him? And, the big one (in my opinion)--just how is Nobunari Oda, the slightly disgraced Japanese skater who we haven't seen in awhile, going to be this season after a slightly questionable coaching change?

I'm feeling a bit like Gossip Girl now, so I'm going to sign out. We'll keep you posted!

I see London...

Skate Canada announced on September 22nd that London, Ontario will be hosting the 2010 Canadian National Figure Skating Championships. The event will take place on January 13 and last through the 17th at the John Labatt Centre. The last time that the city hosted the competition was back in 2005, where Jeffrey Buttle and Joannie Rochette captured their first national titles.

This will be the last nationals before Canada's best and brightest trade coasts and head to Vancouver for the Olympics. If you can go, I'd definitely suggest it, as it's a preview of what's to come...I'm American, but I'm thinking of crossing the border to see it, considering that it's much, much closer to me than Spokane (although, as Jeff Buttle will probably not be in it, I'm not so sure...). It's also the hometown of this little dance team that you probably haven't heard of...Virtue and Moir, anyone?

He's Better!

All of those PCS lovers out there can take a breath. Reports have been surfacing that Stephane Lambiel will be returning to training within the next few days. He received an injury to his "left abductor muscle" according to his website, but it appears that he's on the mend. If you can read French, this page might be of interest: click.

This is great news for the skating world, considering the men's field was starting to look a little bit flimsy for this year's Grand Prix if Stephane wasn't going to make it. Glad he's feeling better!

Dancing with the Stars

As a result of my skating rather badly this morning (um...have you ever realized how riddiculously unforgiving this sport is? I travel for an hour to get to the ice rink nearest to my college and all that I get for my efforts is a flying sit that traveled from here to China and a bunch of double-footed doubles), I think that this would be a great time for me to talk about that lovely part of our sport that doesn't include jumps and doesn't become impossible past age eighteen.

I've never actually been this excited for the ice dancing season to start...in fact, I've never actually been excited about ice dancing period, the one exception maybe being Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto's silver-medal skate at the Olympics. I began getting into watching skating when Russia and Eastern Europe were still, thanks in part to the old 6.0 system, completely dominating the dance scene. The long, tacky skirts, boring music, and lack of jumps never really attracted my twelve year old self. However, this year, there are a bunch of North American teams that I'm really looking forward to seeing.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White
I was lucky enough to see these guys skate live at one of the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center's Saturday Night Ice Shows. They were phenomenal--so powerful and so in-sync on twizzles!!!!! I thought that their free dance last year at Nationals was amazing, and I really, really want them to move up in the ranks this year--in my opinion, they whole heartedly deserve it (and...um, I'm a nineteen year old girl who's been captured by Charlie White's gorgeousness...but I'll try not to talk about that).

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
I suppose that they go on this list without saying. I think that they're great and definitely deserved that silver medal...but I also found their free dance a bit boring at worlds last year. I'd like to see some more power from them, but their connection on the ice really is extraordinary.

Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder
I'm interested in whether or not their level of skating will continue through next season. I'm glad that they're staying on until the Olympics, but I'm wondering if they'll be able to hold off the Russians, who were out on injury for the World Championships, and the North Americans, including, of course, the revamped...

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto
I'm dying to see them. So many people don't like them, but I can't help it. They're the reason why I know what the heck is going on in the ice dancing world...I honestly think that their West Side Story FD was the first dance program I watched all of the way through and truly, truly enjoyed. I'm really interested in seeing what their new coaching situation has done for them and hope that we'll see it in their result.

Madison and Keiffer Hubbell
I think that these guys might be at the head of the next generation of American ice dancing (wow...a decade ago that would have meant nothing. Things have definitely changed for the better!!). I've always thought that brother-sister ice dancing teams were a bit...weird, considering they're supposed to be portraying a couple, but I have to say that I really, really like these guys. They're having success on the JGP (Mexico, anyone?), and they'll be making their senior debuts at Nats this year!!!!


Obviously, I do want to see the other teams, but if I were to list everyone that I was excited about, this would be a very, very long blog.

I'll probably be doing one or possibly two (depending on timing) of these commentaries about each discipline a week leading up to the start of the senior international season...Skate America!!!!!!

Adios Nonino

I'll be the first person to admit that I haven't really followed Jeffrey Buttle's career too closely. I cheered for him at the Olympics and felt for him at 2007 Worlds, but it wasn't until what would become the last event of his competitive career that he became my favorite male skater.

So, although the news is about a week old, I figured I'd start the first entry of my new figure skating blog with an entry about Jeff.

In a skating world where most of the emphasis is put on a person's ability to rotate four times in the air, Jeff Buttle was sort of a breath of fresh air when he got onto the ice. The fact that he was able to win Worlds without a quad is a pretty extraordinary feat, especially when you look at the fact that the jump was in all of the other top competitor's programs. After 2008 Worlds, I spent a whole lot of time (which SHOULD have been spent studying...) looking him up on YouTube. People will talk about how he has an easier program because of a lack of a quad, but I think that any figure skater (including myself) would be able to tell you that his intricately choreographed, musical programs are not only works of art, but also programs that I doubt any other skater out there could perform. While he may not have always been consistant with the jumps, he was consistent with the performance, and that is something that is sadly lacking in figure skating today.

I only wish that I'd gotten a chance to see him compete live, but--lucky for us!--he's not returning to the University of Toronto just yet. I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed for the US tour of Stars on Ice...I'm sure that he'll do the Canadian tour, but now that he has all of this free time, I certainly hope that he stops by New York as well :-)

On the other hand, I'd like to welcome you to my blog...it's not very well publicized at the moment, so if you're reading this, I'll be quite surprised =], but expect lots of updates over the course of the season, because I'm a figure skater who's stuck at a college without an ice rink, so I've got lots of skating-related energy that I have to get out somehow :-)

So, I leave you with one of my all-time favorite Jeffrey programs.