Back to Beijing

And you thought that this city would slip off of the sports radar after the Olympics ended...

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating heads to the second largest city in China this week. One thing about the GP is that they don't seem to give anyone a break--it seems like we've just come off of Skate Canada, and suddenly we're halfway across the world!!! Anyway, it looks like it'll be a good competition in many of the fields. I don't have time to do a whole rundown of the week, but here are what I think will be the highlights:

MEN: A bunch of my under-the-radar favorites are in this group. Jeremy Abbott, who was fourth for the second time at this year's nationals, will be there representing the US--look out for his quad, which he seems to be nailing in competition more and more often. Stephen Carriere, the US bronze medalist, will also be there. Tomas Verner, who has been on a roller coaster ride as far as his skating goes for the past season and a half, is the favorite going into the competition, but, as much as I love him, he does have a habbit of self-destructing in the free skate, so don't count anyone out.

LADIES: The big bright light here is obviously Yu-Na Kim. Look for her to repeat that amazing skate that she had at Skate America. Looking for a rematch with the Korean superstar after Skate America is Miki Ando, who, yet again, claims that she'll be putting out a a quad in the free. Competing for the US is world team member Ashley Wagner, who recently switched coaches to Priscilla Hill, and Katrina Hacker.

PAIRS: I honestly don't know too much about the field at CoC. However, the Chinese have always had a great pairs program, and I'd keep an eye out for their teams of Zhang and Zhang and Pang and Tong. This was supposed to be the debut competition for former US Champions Brooke Castille and Benjamin Okolski, but yet another injury forced them to pull out. Feel better, guys!

ICE DANCING: This, yet again, is the big one for me (I swear I was never this enthusiastic about ice dancing until this season...it just got so good). This is a LOADED field. First of is Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. They came in second at Skate America, but looked tons more confident--will they be able to bring that confidence to China and possibly grab the gold? Not of their training mates, Oksana Domina and Maxim Shabalin, have anything to say about it. These two went head to head all of last season (before Domina and Shabalin had to pull out because of injury, of course), so it came as a surprise to everyone when the Russian team announced that they would be training under the same coaches as Belbin and Agosto in Pennsylvania. This is the first time this season that these two will be competing, and the first time we'll be seeing Domina and Shabilin since halfway through last season, so this should be a big one. Not to be forgotten, as they proved at Worlds last year, are the other Russian team of Khokhlova and Novitski, who are the reigning world bronze medalists after they edged away Belbin and Agosto's efforts to reach the podium last March.

It should be a good competition!!!