The first major senior event of the season gets underway this week in Oberstdorf, Germany at the Nebelhorn Trophy. The Nebelhorn serves as an official Olympic qualifier for countries to fill the remaining slots available for the Olympics. There are a few countries who were unable to qualify skaters in certain disciplines due to their skaters' low placements at the 2009 World Championships.
The remaining slots are generally filled by some of the smaller countries such as Azerbijan, Luxembourg, or New Zealand. Generally there are bigger countries that traditionally supports skaters that just missed qualifying in a discipline. Switzerland falls into this category. Their current champion, Jamal Othman, finished 26th at Worlds. I don't believe he even qualified to continue the freeskate after his short. Switzerland is without a spot for the Olympics in the men's competition from his 26th place finish. What makes this pursuit interesting this year is the return of a two-time World champion and Olympic silver medalist: Stephane Lambiel.
Lambiel is the Swiss Brett Favre, perpetually going in and out of retirement. I'm anxious to see if this Favre can still prove himself. (He would instantly lose the Favre-title if he doesn't succeed, right?) I'm looking forward to catching his skate on YouTube... come on European fans, get your camera phones ready, it's Stephane Lambiel making a comeback (for the 2nd time!)
Ah, catching skating on YouTube. There was a stir on a message board that NBC's Universal Sports would be televising Nebelhorn. Alas, they just posted upcoming skating competitions on the calendar on their figure skating site. Hopefully, some info on the event will show up there. I've heard the US Olympic Committee has something in their bylaws that anything deemed an "Olympic Trials" comes under their jurisdiction which I think usually extends to broadcasting rights. NBC is so big into promoting Olympic Trials they usually will cover and promote those events. It would make sense to have some coverage of an international Olympic Trial, even if it's just a webcast or posting updates. Online coverage counts these days.
Beyond searching for Stephane Lambiel's skates, I'll also be searching for the six American skaters competing. The US can't qualify anymore slots for the games, they were set at Worlds (3 men, 3 dance teams, 2 pair teams, and 2 ladies). This is an international competition debut to test drive programs before the Grand Prix season. Alissa Czisny, Ryan Bradley, Brooke Casitle & Ben Okolski and Meryl Davis & Charlie White will be there. I'll be searching for Davis & White's new programs for sure. I've heard the original dance is a mix of Bollywood music. Ryan Bradley and Alissa Czisny always do well early in the season and I hope that trend continues and gives them confidence for the rest of the season. I've not seen Castile & Okolski too much, but I think the last time they competed here, they did well and ended up winning the US Champs later that year. Here's hoping to a great competition for all!
1 comment:
FYI: Lambiel is not like Brett Favre at all. To my knowledge, he retired once and came back once. He has not retired and come back over and over. He's no different than Plushenko in terms of number of retirements.
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