Skate Canada Starts Today!!!

One week into the season, we're off to Ottawa, Ontario (which, if you ever have the chance, is a great city to visit). Skate Canada had all of the makings of a HUGE showdown in ladies (everyone who wasn't at Skate America is basically at Skate Canada), mens, ice dancing, and even pairs.

Well, that was then...during the summer when the GP assignments came out. This is now, and the list of scratches is long enough for me to make a list:

1) Jeffrey Buttle: Well, if you don't know about this, it's time to play some SERIOUS catch-up. His retirement has, to quote every single article that I've read, "rocked the skating world". He's happy with it, but we're certainly not.

2) Stephane Lambiel: Yet another retirement that shocked everyone. This one was SLIGHTLY less surprising than Buttle's, since we'd watched as Stephane traveled back and forth between New Jersey and his home country multiple times over the sumer to try and overcome injury. The retirements of both Lambiel and Buttle have put a significant dent in the advancement of mens figure skating--they were two of the few skaters who could really work the CoP AND put out dazzlingly beautiful programs.

3) Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir: Canada's ice dancing wunderkinds. Tessa is still recurring from a previously unannounced leg surgery brought on by overpracticing. They hope to be back by NHK, but it's really sad that Canada, which has really led the way with North American ice dancing, doesn't have anyone skating.



Okay, so on to the people who are actually competing...

In the ladies field, keep an eye out for Canadian favorite Joannie Rochette. She's competing against Carolina Kostner of Italy, who won silver at World's last year (don't EVEN get me started on that). Joannie is a really strong, powerful skater who's had some jumping inconsistancies, but has gotten so much better over the past few seasons. Also in the mix is Fumie Suguri (remember her?), who needs a medal here to show that she's still in the running for a spot on the Japanese World team come January (she only has to compete against a few girls you may have heard of--Mao Asada...Miki Ando...Yukari Nakano--and that's just at home. No pressure or anything). Caroline Zhang, Bebe Liang, and Alissa Czisny will be competing for the US here. Caroline is probably looking to repeat her amazing Grand Prix debut last year, so definitely keep an eye out for her and her "pearl" spin. Never count out Alissa Czisny either (see Nationals 2007, please). She's back with a whole new attitude to go with (hopefully more consistant) jumps and her exquisite spins.

On to the men. This was supposed to be a huge competition, but thanks to the retirements, that is no longer so. Evan Lysacek will be here, hopefully coming back with a vengeance (and fully rotated jumps--PLEASE EVAN!!!!) after his placement at Skate America. His main competition here will be homeprovince (is that even a word?) favorite Patrick Chan, who is now holding the weight of Skate Canada (the organization, which incidently has the same name as the competition) on his shoulders after Jeff's retirement. He's been practicing the quad over the summer, but I doubt that he'll risk putting it in this early in the season. Also in the mix is Russian up-and-comer Sergei Voronov, so keep an eye out for him.

As for the pairs, my personal favorite pairs team--Canada's own Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison--will be competing here. If you haven't seen their freeskate from last season's World Championships, go and watch it now and try telling me that you don't love them (and that's an order). They're coming in with a triple twist, having won a bronze at Worlds with only a double. I seriously CANNOT WAIT to see them. The other team that I'm looking forward to is my fellow Americans, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker. They were great at last week's Skate America, coming in second place behind the current World Champs. Here's to hoping that they repeat that beautiful freeskate here (you're only carrying the hopes of the entirety of the American pairs program, guys...just saying). One team that those two pairs should definitely watch out for would be Kawaguchi and Smirnov. They've gotten a lot of attention lately, especially since it was a HUGE deal that the Russians actually had to look outside of their country to create a suitable pairs team--Kawaguchi is from Japan. Things sure can change in just a few years! They're a really strong team and are certainly contenders for the gold.

And then there is ice dancing. My favorite team, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, will be competing here, so forgive me if I'm a little bit biased. With Virtue and Moir no longer competing, these guys have a serious shot at their first GP gold!!!!! They really haven't gotten any press, which is disappointing, and have been living in the shadow of Belbin and Agosto as well as Virtue and Moir (they were all training mates until Belbin and Agosto switched coaches). Also in the running is the French team of Pechalat and Bourzat--if anyone is going to take the gold away from Davis and White, it will probably be them. We've got a strong American contingent here--Navarro and Bommentre, the bronze medalists at last year's US Nationals, are here as well as up-and-comers Wester and Barantsev (um, they're married and they're kind of the cutest couple ever...just saying).


So there aren't any huge, lifechanging events going on here (unless you're Meryl and Charlie!!!!), but there should be some good skating this weekend. Definitely tune in if you have the time!