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!

What Happened...Part II

Ugh, I'm sorry that this is taking me forever to do.

Ice Dancing:
The big hype here was not actually the current reigning world champs, Delobel and Schoenfelder. It Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto--unless you've been living under a rock for awhile, you've probably heard that they switched coaches over the summer. Well, they still came in second, but I have to say that I think that they're headed in the right direction. The changes could really be spotted in the CD, where they looked cleaner and more comfortable. I wasn't a HUGE fan of their FD, skated to the music from the opera Tosca, mostly because Tanith looked kind of awkward, as though she didn't fit in with the character that she was supposed to be portraying. Ben, as always, still looked very strong, and that's what saved the program for me. I do think that a few more months with their new coaches will do quite a bit for them.

And because I talked about Belbin and Agosto for this whole post, and they didn't even win, I'll give you Delobel and Schoenfelder's OD. Please note Olivier Schoenfelder's new look:



Pairs:
There were no surprises in this round of the competition, except for the short program, where the Russians pulled off a minor upset by coming up ahead of the German World Champs Savchenko and Szolkowy. The world righted itself in the free skater, where the Germans came out on top once again. However, the real highlight for me of this competition was the young American team of Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker. I am SO SO happy that the US might have the medal prospects in the pairs division in the coming years. They were great! They skated to West Side Story, which is a little bit overused, but they pulled it off and made it seem fresh with their great choreography and a HUGE throw triple loop at the end (and not to mention that triple twist in the beginning). The best part was the look on Keauna's mother's face (she co-coaches them with Captain Blood herself, Dalilah Sapenfield) when they finished the program--she was in tears, which was so cute :-)

So if you're going to watch nothing else of the pairs competition, you need to watch the long. I can't find it on YouTube right now, so you'll have to do with the short in the meantime:

What Happened at Skate America: Part I

LADIES:
YU-NA KIM!!!!! This girl was absolutely, positively breathtaking. There's been all of this hype about the next generation of American ladies, but a lot of them were there at SA and just could not compare once Yu-Na stepped onto the ice. She singled a loop in her long program and stepped out on a double axel in her short, but there were no falls and she just looked so much more confident. Keep those fingers crossed for an injury-free season for her--it hasn't happened quite yet on the senior circuit. She won by twenty points in what might be one of the strongest ladies fields in the individual Grand Prix events. I think that she and Mao Asada will be going head to head all summer. As far as the rest of the ladies go, the competition was okay, but not great. No quad from Miki Ando, which isn't exactly a surprise. Yukari Nakano still has that wrapped leg that makes me cringe. Mirai Nagasu has some growth issues to work out, but I think that she'll be the one to watch for the Americans this year. I like Rachael Flatt, but I don't love her. As far Kimmie Meissner, well, she made me almost want to cry. She obviously has mental issues to work out--what she did land looked very good, but this competition was not a great way for her to start out the season.



Men:
Okay, so I understand why Evan Lysacek came in third--it was all technical stuff that they found with a sloooooooooow motion camera. His step sequences also apparently hurt him. However, the fact that he didn't win is making me lose some faith in the CoP. Yes, the quad kind of failed. However, everything else looked amazing (to my eye), and Kozuka just did not have the charisma that Evan had--he didn't draw you into his program. Johnny came in second with two programs that were good, but will probably get better. I think that he'll be landing that quad by the end of the season--he's very close now and mostly two-foots it or steps out, so he's not getting the one point deduction for falls. The rest of the men were slightly disappointing. Adam Rippon hada rough start to his senior career, but this was his first competition at this level, and I'm sure that we'll be seeing more from him.

Compulsories

The results from the compulsory dance are in, and Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder are in first with 38.49 points, followed very, very closely by Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto who have 37.63. The Kerrs sit in third followed by Pernelle Carron and Mathieu Jost, another French team.

Even from just looking at the costumes (I haven't seen the dances yet, but I will later on!), Belbin and Agosto have a different style. The compulsories have always been their weak point, and they're closer to the top than they usually are when facing competition like Delobel and Schoenfelder, so it's safe to say that they still have a good chance at winning.

Judging from what I've seen of the French World Champs, they look great--really fit, really in sync, and definitely every inch of a pair of world champions. I think that this competition is going to be an extremely close one, so stay tuned!

Quadruple the Fun?

Word on the street is that Miki Ando has been nailing quads during the practice sessions at Skate America. Will we be seeing one in her freeskate? She's done this before, landing quads on the practice ice and either popping or falling during the competition, but her coach, Morosov, is claiming that she's a completely changed skater.

I guess we'll have to wait until Saturday, but if this information is true, the ladies competition (if it's possibly) just got a whole lot more interesting.

Patience is a Virtue

2008 World Silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada have pulled out of Skate Canada. According to CBC, Tessa has not fully recovered from an unannounced leg surgery due to overtraining. They're hoping that she'll be healthy enough for NHK, but this significantly lowers their chances of making the Grand Prix Final.

Wow, this is a surprise. Skate Canada's world team has been dropping like flies--Jeff Buttle retired, Langlois and Hay are injured, Mabee is out for the season, and now their ice dancing prodigees are out of their own Grand Prix event. I hope that Tessa gets better soon! I'm surprised that we didn't hear anything about her being injured, but maybe they wanted to keep it quiet to avoid all of that speculation stuff that goes along with injuries in skating. Now we'll have to wait a whole extra month to see whether or not they'll be able to live up to their previous season (which I expect they will).

On the other hand, this opens up a huge door for the American teams at the event, particularly Meryl Davis and Charlie White. They have a serious shot at the gold medal now.

New and Improved

This year's Skate America seems to be all about being brand new and sparkly...at least for the Americans.

There's Kimmie Meissner. Google News her to find a bunch of articles just like this one. There are skaters whose style I like better, but my heart is 100% for Kimmie. If there is one skater who I am dying to see succeed at this competition, it is her. Will Richard Callaghan and Todd Eldredge (yeah, remember him and his amazing spins?!)work their magic? I think that I, and most of America, hope so...we're not quite ready to move on to Mirai, Caroline, and Rachael just yet. GO KIMMIE!!!!!

While Kimmie Meissner fell (literally and figuratively) at Nationals, our next duo fell at Worlds. I'm talking about Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. They, too, have changed coaches, this time to Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov. I, for one, am thrilled that they did this--Michigan was looking a little bit crowded. While, with the sudden coaching change of Domina and Shabilin, Aston, PA may be feeling a bit cozy at the minute as well, I think that this coaching change is going to work out for the better. There's lots of hype about their new "back to basics" attitude, choreography, and (hopefully) improved compulsories. Again, I would LOVE to see these two have a really successful season--it hasn't really happened since the Olympics.

Next is Johnny Weir. His coaching change isn't quite as new, but hopefully it's for the better. He has a brand new, 100% focused on skating mentality that's bound to be dangerous to his competitors, so I figured that he should be put in here.

And last is Evan Lysacek. Evan didn't have a coaching change this year, but he did have a major choreographer one, moving to the one and only Queen of the Fur Coat herself, Tatiana Tarasova. Will Evan dabble into rhinestones and sparkles territory? Will we see something other than the all black, Zorro-Carmen-Tosca-esque guy we've been seing for the past four years? I love Evan, so hopefully we will be!

And that's all of the major changes for major skaters that I can think of this season.

And, because I forgot about them in my last post, try to find a way to watch Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker. They're America's only feasible hope of a medal collection this season in the pairs event (unless Inoue and Baldwin surprise us), so I'd try to tune on online (I doubt they'll be shown on TV in the US) as they take on the Germans.

Watch Out, Washington

It's Skate America time!

After a long summer (um...no skating since March?!), skaters are finally packing up their suitcases, brushing off their passports, and heading out to Everett, Washington!!!! It's time to check those TV schedules (or not, since basically nothing is being broadcast in the US...for more on that, see below) and get yourself [again, if you're American...if you're not, you probably have better coverage than us] an Icenetwork membership (or let your old one "accidentally renew" on your parent's credit card like I did) because it's basically the only way you're going to see figure skating this year.

If you don't have the time to see all of Skate America, here are some highlights that I think that you shouldn't miss:

The Ladies: This is the big discipline at this year's SA. Miki Ando, Yu-Na Kim, and a bunch of the little American upstarts are competing. The main reason to watch? Kimmie Meissner--we're all curious about how she's doing.

Johnny vs. Evan: How is this one going to play out? Oh, and keep an eye for Adam Rippon looking to make his senior debut, and Shawn Sawyer on a hunt to fill up the gap that Jeff Buttle left behind.

Ice Dancing: Watch out for Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto under new coaches. How will they fare against the raining world champs? If you have the time, keep an eye out for the young Americans in this event.

Season Opener!!!!

This year, if you're an American and a skating fan, one of your biggest concerns might be (and should be) is how exactly you're going to watch our favorite sport. Thanks to figure skating's decline in popularity here in the US, coverage isn't exactly eating up primetime TV every night. Since my friends and I were talking about the ways we're going to get along, I figured I'd post a few different ways to get by (and by that I mean survive this HORRIBLE TERRIBLE drought caused by our football, basketball, and Nascar loving nation):


NBC: For this week, and this week only, you will be able to watch our own Grand Prix stop (why they show this and not the rest of the GP is beyond me...what's the point in showing Skate America if they're not going to broadcast the final?) on NBC on October 26th at 4:00 pm. It's only two hours of coverage for all four disciplines, so I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking here, folks. Since it's the US, this'll probably mean the ladies, Evan and Johnny, and possibly Tanith and Ben (I'd be very surprised if they showed Emily and Evan or even Keuna and Rockne).


Icenetwork: Yes, you have to pay thirty bucks for it, but if you're living in the US, I strongly suggest this. They're showing live coverage of the entire Grand Prix (including the JGPF), some of U.S. Senior Nationals, Europeans, Four Continents, Junior Worlds, and the brand new World Team Trophy. This kind of sounds like an advertisement (I'm not being paid for this, I swear!), but if you're serious about seeing your figure skating, this is your best bet at actually being able to watch this season.

YouTube/Other Broadcasts: If you don't mind patchy coverage and possibly commentators in other languages, sometimes this'll work on. I know that the ISU (or at least USFS) has been cracking down on YouTube videos, so the coverage here might be limited. I know that other countries have websites where they're streaming a live broadcast of a lot of the competitions (my friend go last year's Worlds through some Turkish network), but, again, you might be taking a bit of a chance by going with this.

Canadian Television: A lot of my friends who live close to the US/Canada border (I'm looking at you, Lake Placid) get CBC and CTV. Most of the country does not have access to this, I realize, but for those of you who do, I suggest looking into what they have.


This is just a broad list of different ways to watch skating. If you have others, definitely comment and tell me!

Stephane Says Goodbye

It happened. He retired. He and Jeffrey Buttle were basically the definition of the PCS, and, now that they're both gone, I am not looking forward to a season that's just about jumping.

Apparently retiring is the thing to do this season :-(

NEWS FLASH

I really should be studying right now, but...

Stephane Lambiel has called a press conference to talk about a "crucial change" in his figure skating career. He went back to Europe recently for an awards show and apparently has not returned to New Jersey.

Why is this so big? Well, speculation of course! The word on the street (meaning the rumor mill) is that Stephane has called the conference to announce his retirement. He didn't call a press conference when he changed coaches or anything (which was a HUGEEEEEE deal), so that can mean that his announcement is only bigger. He is not longer listed as a competitor at Skate Canada or Trophee Eric Bompard, so at the very least, he'll announce that he's pulled out of the Grand Prix (let's hope that that's it). He's been battling injury all summer, which probably means that he hasn't made much headway with the triple axel, but still!

To which I can only say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

The world wouldn't be so cruel as to take away both Jeffrey and Stephane in the same pre-Olympic season, would it?

Midterms Week Roundup

I know that tons of interesting things are happening in the skating world...but I'm in the middle of midterms week.

Sooo...I'm going to do a quick roundup:

-->Naomi Nari Nam retiring: I'll miss her so much! She was such an amazing singles skater (those spins!), and I'd hoped to see more of her in pairs
-->GOLD MEDAL SWEEP IN AFRICA!!!!: The Hubbells (LOVE THEM), Alexe Gilles, and Richard Dornbush ALL WIN at the coolest looking ice rink I've ever seen. Piper Gilles (that family has really cool names) and Zach Donohue also medaled in ice dance, Amanda Dobbes in the freeskate
-->Kerrs win in Finland: I don't know enough about them to have an opinion, but I did like their alien costumes last year
-->Yet Another Change to the ISJ: Why does the ISU have to be so sketchy about all of this stuff?

I'll be back sometime next week, right in time for the start of Skate America!!!!

Just Kidding...

So in my last post I said that I wished that Jeffrey Buttle would do the US SOI tour...

...and then I woke up this morning, checked his website, and it turns out...he is! Twenty lucky cities in the US will get to see Jeff tour. Only the first ten tour dates have been confirmed, so they're making me a little bit nervous, since (with the exception of the random Lake Placid show, which is basically as far away from me as you can get while still being in New York State) all of them are currently West Coast shows (so all of you guys out there are really lucky!) The show doesn't come to the East Coast until later on, and he doesn't have any confirmed dates there, but hopefully he'll decide to come (it is, after all, closer to his hometown).

If you're interested the list of tour dates including the ones that Jeff has confirmed are here and the official Smucker's Stars on Ice website ishere (they say that the website should be updated for this season's Stars on Ice On the Edge soon).

Sasha on Ice

As some of you may have heard, Sasha Cohen is heading up the 2008-09 Stars on Ice US tour (SOI website here). There's been lots of talk in the skating world recently about Sasha coming back to skate for the 2010 Olympics--she's been quoted as saying that she's really training for them, although she'll be skipping 2009 Worlds in LA (not I good idea in my opinion, since that means that the Olympics could be her first major international competition in four years). However, what has me a bit concerned is that she's going to need all of the time that she can get to get back the jumps that she hasn't been doing (not to mention the fact that she's never really had a consistant triple triple). I like Sasha, but she's got me a bit worried.

Anyway, if you're interested in the tour, IceNetwork has the complete list of everyone in it (the cast hasn't changed that much from last year). I was hoping that Jeffrey Buttle would chose to do the US tour, but it seems like that isn't going to happen =[ For those of you who won't be able to catch the show, the Lake Placid version will be broadcast on NBC on January 4th.

Huh?

One of the first competitions for French skaters this season takes place at the French Masters in Orléans. If you've seen even one international competition in the past four years (and if you read this blog, I'm guessing that you have =]), you'd expect Brian Joubert to win the competition hands down.

Welllll...then I guess it's time for you to meet his friend and teammate, Alban Préaubert.

Shocking basically the entire skating world, Alban won French Masters over Brian. Although Brian had a significant lead after the short program, a fall on his opening quad, a hand down on a triple axel, and numerous mistakes on other triples in his freeskate led to a score that was easily beaten by Alban's flawless program, which included a gorgeous quad. He won the freeskate and then the entire competition. Brian Joubert has not been beaten on home turf for four years.

Apparently, the 2007 World Champion has been having some blade issues (he told icenetwork that it effected him mentally as well as physically on the ice). Hopefully for him, that's all that it is and everything will be resolved by the time the Grand Prix hits France in November.

On another note...Brian doesn't seem to be having great luck with underdogs. First Jeffrey Buttle at last year's Worlds, and now beaten by his own countryman in a competition that he was supposed to own? Just something to think about...

Here is Alban's short program...I'm on the hunt for a youtube version of his long, so stay tuned!!