Stuff to remember so I don't look like an old lady skater

O.M.G! I think if I checked the weather in Antarctica, it would be warmer that Louisville, KY - especially with the lack of ozone, that's got to let way more warmth from the sun in. It's 9'F here and it's going to stay that way all day. The ice rink was warmer this morning.

At the cozy warm ice rink my coach told me she watched a junior moves test with the new moves Sunday. The poor kid failed and she said my loops were about the same this person's. Such inspiring words to kick off the lesson! My loops are the same as a preteen who didn't pass the test!

Anyway, here are notes to myself to jog my memory for the next practice. Perhaps they help others someday:

Outside forward rockers - great shoulders and edge quality going into turn. Must remember an outside rocker creates a new circle. When you complete a 3-turn, you are staying on the same circle, a rocker puts you into the pattern of a new circle. Remember rise up through the pinky toe on the outside edge during the turn. Then think of aiming heel towards the boards and shifting shoulders into facing outside of the new circle. Also - IMPORTANT - think of this new circle as going into a back outside pivot right after the turn so the free leg tucks behind the skating foot which opens the free hip. When I do this right, it really feels like my skating leg keeps pushing out, as opposed to focusing on my free leg getting behind me. The skating leg works best when the shoulders are correct. It's all connected, one false move makes that horrible, annoying flat out of the turn.

Inside forward rockers - this is just for the left side, keep your edge during the turn by bending the ankle and putting pressure on the big toe. After the turn with pressure still on the big toe think of pushing rib cage outside of the circle.

Straight line footwork - friggin' do this without the twizzles and work on twizzles separately. When you are 30-something, this helps immensely and makes it look like you can do amazing Daisuke Takahashi footwork. Now that the twizzle-free sequence is executed much faster and more powerfully, gradually add in a twizzle a section at a time. Unless you are either Meryl Davis or Charlie White, I recommend this to skaters of any age when first working on this move.

Outside loops - it's all about the rhythm between the shoulders and hips. Remember, when pulling arm back while transitioning from an inside to outside edge to begin the loop, keep your ribcage out. Otherwise, you lean way to far back which can pull your weight from the front of the blade where it should be to the back of blade which is wrong. Remember doing back loops in patch - you looked under your armpit at the tracing, not over the shoulder. You looked under the armpits because the weight needs to be on the front of the blade, by the ball of your foot. When you lean back too far and start to rock to the back of your blade while executing the loop, you look like a preteen who failed the junior moves by making giant loop patterns!

Grand Prix Final Time

I'm swamped with work and holiday happenings. I had to prod myself out of my cozy bed this morning and was late for my usually skating practice. As I get further into my 30s, 5:50 a.m. practices on Friday mornings are not a good idea. I enjoy getting my blood pumping and feeling like I'm making a bit of progress on the moves, but being in the cold and darkness after four days of the daily grind is not easy.

Since I'm still tired and in skating mode, I may sneak and stream the GP Final live from Beijing today. Hey, I work for a education technology company and we're all about online! However, that will not help me get my projects finished. I'll probably check out some archives tonight. In the meantime, here is a compilation of blogger predictions from Tony Wheeler at Flutzing Around.



Do you agree or disagree?

Porter Synchro Classic

Calling all Synchro Skating fans, the Porter Synchronized Skating Classic is taking place this weekend in Ann Arbor, MI. You can actually watch the event live here for $15 as well as see on-demand content post-event: http://www.ledinvideo.com/stream.html

You can also get event updates on the Hockettes' team blog: hockettes.wordpress.com.

I've been catching up on the action and I'm looking forward to the senior free skate this afternoon. Team Unique from Sweden is competing! Also, it looks like a few of the collegiate teams - Western Michigan and Illinois - are giving seniors a try along with a former masters team, Denver Synchronicity. Major exciting stuff for a synchro fan.

After the short program, the Haydenettes are in the lead, followed by the Crystallettes, Team Unique, Miami Senior Varsity, California Gold, WMU, Denver, Illinois, and finally the Starlights.

Congratulations to my club teams, both the Open Juvenile and Master teams won their events. Go Riverstars!

Wow, Bristol Palin made it to the final week of Dancing With The Stars. If you're bummed about the end of DWTS this season, you can rejoice in the start of Skating With The Stars which kicks off next week!

Well, let's not get our hopes too high. The show will most likely be quite dorky with wobbly celebrities on ice.

The pro skaters have been announced:

• Denis Petukhov
• Keauna McLaughlin
• Ethan Burgess
• Jennifer Wester
• Fred Palascak
• Brooke Castile

All of the pros have strong partnering experience and have competed at Nationals within the past few years. I think that will help the wobbly celebrities. I had thought with it being a post-Olympic season we would see more of the just retired Olympians, but they might have overshadowed the D-List stars. Tanith Belbin will apparently be appearing in the Samantha Harris/Brooke Burke role as co-hostess. She'll be one of two Torino and Vancouver Olympians on the show.

Johnny Weir will be one of the judges after two Olympic appearances. Dick Button will be along side him in the judges booth because honestly, there has to be number of televised skating events with Dick Button. I think it's an FCC rule for broadcasts. Laurieann Gibson is the final judge. She is a choreographer, but I'm not familiar with her.

Should be fun for at least a viewing or two.

Notes on 2011 Sectionals

Midwesterns - Ann Arbor, Michigan

Alissa Czisny, the 2009 ladies national championship, finished 10th at last year's championship. Due to this finish she had to qualify for nationals despite winning a Grand Prix event two weeks earlier. She won Midwesterns by over 30 points. According to her scores, the short program was good, but the long program had some issues including two falls. The other skaters rounding out the top four and earning a trip to Nationals hail from Colorado - Morgan Bell, Katy Jo West and Tatyana Khazova.

The senior mens event was much more competitive between a veteran of senior nationals (Pennington), junior grand prix competitors (Brown and Johnson) and a skater moving into the senior ranks after success as a junior competitor (Hochstein). Jason Brown edged out Grant Hochstein. Parker Pennington finished 3rd and Alexander Johnson rounds out the top four that advanced to nationals.

Only three couples competed in the senior pairs event. Molly Aaron and Daniyel Cohen won the event. The new team of Becky Bereswill and Trevor Young finished 2nd and advanced to Nationals.

There were also only three couples competing in the dance event. Shannon Wingle and Timothy McKernan won by nearly 20 points.

Easterns - Aston, Pennsylvania

Samantha Cesario won senior ladies. Melissa Bulanhagui, Kelsey Traunero and Joelle Forte also  advanced. Forte is an older skater, mid-twenties so it's always fun to see a slightly older skater without major sponsors advance.


There were four couples in both the dance and pairs events, but I didn't recognize any of the competitors. It appears it will be a first nationals for those skaters and possible Grand Prix events in the future.

Pacific Coasts - Culver City, CA

Vanessa Lam conquered the senior ladies event by 18 points. She sure is having a great year also having won her only Junior Grand Prix event. Danielle Kahle finished 2nd. She had competed at nationals a few years ago and thought she moved on as she got older, so it's nice to see her name near the top of the sectionals competitors. There was another oldie but goodie at this event, Laura Lipetski finished 11th. She competed at senior nationals back in the late 90s. So she actually competed against Michelle Kwan, Nicole Bobek, Tara Lipinski and Tonia Kwiatkowski. How cool is that? That's gonna inspire me in tomorrow practice working on those junior moves thinking I need to switch to the adult moves track.

Rockne Brubaker and his new partner Mary Beth Marley were the only senior pair there. They only skated their short and scored something like 52 pts for it. Mary Beth also competed in Jr. ladies and qualified for Nationals by finishing 4th.

Jonathan Cassar won the senior mens event and will be gracing us with his awe-inspiring spread eagles at nationals.

When Art Worlds Collide

It's an embarrassment of riches for skating fans this weekend with sectionals occuring coast to coast and competitors arriving in Portland to skate.... in America!

While you're planning your viewing schedule between IceNetwork, Universal Sports and Skate Buzz on top of checking blogs, take a few minutes to watch this gem from the mid-90s. My "Today In History" iPad app says today was the day sculptor Auguste Rodin was born back in 1840. Why do I bring this up? Gordeeva and Grinkov skated a program in the year after their 2nd Olympic win that was inspired by Rodin's sculpture, The Kiss. Art inspiring art. The program was choreographed by Marina Zoueva, who is one of the coaches for ice dancers Davis & White who you can see tangoing away at Skate America this weekend.

 Enjoy!

Sectionals - Good Luck!

Good luck to all of the competitors participating at either the Eastern, Midwestern or Pacific sectionals this weekend. If you're in Michigan, head to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube to see Alissa Czisny and Grant Hochstein skate to qualify for Nationals. Alissa Czisny just won a Grand Prix event two weeks ago but has to qualify at Midwestern Sectionals!

It's Too Early To Dig A Hole to China

In just a few hours competitors will take to the ice in the 3rd event of the senior Grand Prix, Cup of China in Beijing.  I need to sleep tonight, so I won't be up at 2:45 a.m. Eastern to watch on IceNetwork. I will be slowly and begrudgingly rolling out of bed to a 5:50 a.m. practice to work on outside rockers.

I'm starting to remember what to do so I don't come out of the turn on a flat for an ungodly number of feet before I can control being on the appropriate back outside edge. I've been trying to pull my free hip back immediately after the rocker to go into a back pivot. Thinking of a back pivot position seems to get my hip in the appropriate position but I'm still getting this scratchy flat, particularly when I'm actually working on power skating in the move. I was told by a dance coach to think not of pulling my free hip back, but to think that my skating leg and skating hip keeps pushing forward. After trying that, something seemed to click and I could remember my movement in the Rocker Foxtrot, a compulsory dance with a move similar to the junior MITF rocker pattern.

While I'll be seeing if I can recreate that action again and improve my outside rockers, skaters far better than I will be putting their short programs out there for judges and the rest of the skating world in Beijing.

My favorite skating blog has a good preview of the competitors at Cup of China: http://loopaxles.blogspot.com/2010/11/beijing-bound.html
If you find yourself with insomnia, check out Aaron's predictions about the event and tune into IceNetwork or Univerals Sports. See if you can spot rocker turns in footwork sequences and if it looks like the free hip is back or the skating hip is forward....

Imagine It With Knives On Their Feet

I checked out the promo for Skating With The Stars again, I recognized a few more of the pros:

Definitely Denis Petukhov, plus Keana McLaughlin and Brooke Castile. Anyone else recognize the others?

I've heard some buzz all along that Johnny Weir will be one of the judges. If so, that seems like an appropriate spot for him. I hope he can get some "vodka shot and a snort of coke" comments in. That will be fabulous.

So the D-list celebs get five weeks of practice prior to the show, but a requirement for participation was an ability to skate forward and backward according to the show's senior producer, Deena Katz.

Skating backgrounds uncovered:
Vince Neil - Skated when he was twelve. Here's hoping we see pre-metal spandex on a pre-teen in pictures.
Rebecca Budig - Brought her own skates to the first practice and took lessons as a kid. Is she an SP-Teri gal? Riedell? Harlicks maybe?
Brandon Mychal Smith - Calls himself "Black Kwan," a.k.a. Michelle Kwan's black brother

It still may be a train wreck even with Michelle's black brother making his public debut, but I'll watch a few times. I like what Jimmy Kimmel says, "If you like Dancing With The Stars, imagine it with knives on their feet."

Skating With The Stars Cast

OK, here's the official list of D-list celebrities doing ABC's Skating With The Stars:

• Rebecca Budig
• Bethenny Frankel
• Johnny Moseley
• Vince Neil
• Brandon Mychal Smith
• Sean Young

Know who those people are? I don't really know either. I do recognize Johnny Moseley from Olympic moguls and Vince Neil from Motley Crue. Kinda of heard of Bethenny Frankel and Sean Young. My wish for celebs with skating backgrounds was not heard.

As for the pros, they didn't really show them in the clips. I did recognize Denis Petukhov so I'm assuming his wife Melissa Gregory is also involved. It doesn't appear to be ISU-sanctioned so perhaps there are some Disney On Ice veterans.

Hope the show is entertaining and if so than more people than me like to watch it so it comes back.

Skating With The Stars Guesses

In between the election coverage, Dancing With The Stars will have their 200th results episode. Big whoop. I'm finding the election on ABC with Facebook's stats more interesting. However, while America votes on their leadership and celebrity dancers, the cast of Skating With The Stars will be announced.

Supposedly, Vince Neill of Motley Crue is one of the stars. Bethenny Frankel of one of the Real Housewives shows is also supposedly a star (gag me with a spoon on that one).

Who knows if either are true, but neither have a skating background to my knowledge. I'm still holding out for some entertainers with some skating chops. Obviously, not near-Olympic level skating backgrounds, but something skating related like hockey, speedskating or a distant competitive figure skating past. My wishlist is still Vera Wang, Keanu Reeves and Condoleeza Rice. I still think there may be a possibility of Levi Johnston popping in there as a bookend to Bristol Palin on DWTS. He was a high school hockey player too.

On the professional end, I'm curious if participating would mean a definite end to being Olympic-eligible. I'm not sure if the show is going to be ISU-sanctioned. If it's not that may limit some participation for skaters who are "taking a year off" and are not sure if they are coming back to Olympic-eligible competition. If it is ISU-sanctioned, I suspect Tanith Belbin, Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek will be involved. I'm also guessing Kristi Yamaguchi will be in there somewhere, maybe as a judge. Other possible pros could be Sasha Cohen, Ryan Bradley, Dorothy Hamill, Josef Sabocik, or David Pelletier.

Who has your vote tonight?

Spinning Skate Canada

Sure, Patrick Chan won with a quad and Alissa Czisny won by landing most jumps in both the short and free, but I'm going to focus this results post on the spins skated by the medalists.

Patrick Chan - kept last year's free skate music to the Phantom of the Opera. Death drop with low sit; beautiful and low right inside three entrance to a fast, low back sit, change into forward sit, then good position with free leg tucked behind his spinning leg; final spin combination a camel into a sit spin, then change foot into a back scratch variation with his free foot crossed in front on the ice. Excellent speed and centering on all spins.

Nobunari Oda - He didn't do a spin until nearly two minutes into the program. I can't explain why I find that odd, but since I've noticed it, I'll probably notice it more. The IJS has caused more skaters to front load their program and Oda's program was certainly packed with jumps and footwork in the front half. The first spin was a combination starting with a camel that seemed a bit unlevel as it rotated into a sit, change, sit, and pulled his bum up and kept his head down for a unique position. Then lots of skating around with some jumps and finally, a flying camel into a sit spin, back scratch with free leg behind the skating leg,  tucked sit, few pushes out into a death drop into a cannonball sit position, scratch spin and final pose. Those last two spins were slow, much slower than Patrick's. I know there will be articles and talk on quads versus quads, but I truly think his slow spins hurt him here more than any jump misses.

Oda - bum up, head down position

Adam Rippon - through training in Toronto, Skate Canada is somewhat of a home competition for Adam. Maybe that caused some jitters in the short, but he had a great skate in the free to win the bronze medal. Adam didn't get into a spin until after the 2 minute mark either, but when he did he stroked into a death drop and held an arm up as a variation in sit spin landing then transitioned into a forward sit in a tuck position while draping his arms towards his spinning  foot; right forward inside edge three into back camel, fast and low sit, scratch spin with variation of the free foot crossed in front on the ice; then he ended with stars into a flying camel and stretched back into a doughnut position, then moved into a sit with a neat arm variation - he wrapped his arms around the free leg - and final scratch and end pose. Good centered spins with nice position variations which he held.

Complete Men's Results:

1	Patrick CHAN	CAN	239.52	4	1
2	Nobunari ODA	JPN	236.52	1	3
3	Adam RIPPON	USA	233.04	3	2
4	Kevin REYNOLDS	CAN	218.65	2	6
5	Javier FERNANDEZ	ESP	210.85	6	4
6	Alban PREAUBERT	FRA	209.05	5	5
7	Artur GACHINSKI	RUS	204.08	7	7
8	Jeremy TEN	CAN	191.86	9	8
9	Yasuharu NANRI	JPN	188.96	8	9
10	Grant HOCHSTEIN	USA	181.65	12	10
11	Kristoffer BERNTSSON	SWE	175.84	11	11
12	Paolo BACCHINI	ITA	167.60	10	12

Alissa Czisny - Wow, this program is lovely. Her dress and music reminded me a bit of Michelle Kwan's Lyra Angelica, I hope she can have a moment at Nationals like Kwan in 98 with this program. Her first spin was a flying camel into a held and extended back camel into a doughnut position and then on the same foot pulled into a gorgeous catch-foot position. What I thought was especially nice was that she spun in three different positions on the same foot with the same amount of speed throughout. Wonderful spinning technique on display at Skate Canada.  Next a camel, sit, change sit into a "Y-spin" that had such extension, it was really more of an "I-spin." Finally, she ended with a classic layback and then moved into a haircutter and finally into wonderful and rather natural looking Biellmann. Again, these three positions were on one foot with good speed and centering throughout.


Ksenia Makarova - Layback to the side, haircutter, Biellmann, good speed in all positions; stars into camel, sit spin, broken leg position sit spin; finally, butterfly into good sit position and done.

Amelie Lacoste - classic layback, pretty haircutter position; back camel, illusions, change foot to forward sit and scratch spin


Complete Ladies' Results:

1	Alissa CZISNY	USA	172.37	4	1
2	Ksenia MAKAROVA	RUS	165.00	2	2
3	Amelie LACOSTE	CAN	157.26	5	4
4	Cynthia PHANEUF	CAN	156.24	1	7
5	Haruka IMAI	JPN	154.54	6	3
6	Agnes ZAWADZKI	USA	154.35	3	6
7	Myriane SAMSON	CAN	152.05	7	5
8	Valentina MARCHEI	ITA	137.78	9	8
9	Fumie SUGURI	JPN	132.84	8	10
10	Sonia LAFUENTE	ESP	131.20	10	9
11	Alexe GILLES	USA	125.64	11	11

Skate Canada Pairs and Dance Results

I'll try to catch up with the watching the archives, but here are the results of this weekend's pairs and ice dance results.
 
Skate Canada Ice Dance Results:

1	Vanessa CRONE / Paul POIRIER	CAN	154.42	2	1
2	Sinead KERR / John KERR	GBR	149.80	1	3
3	Madison CHOCK / Greg ZUERLEIN	USA	139.05	4	4
4	Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM	CAN	138.16	6	2
5	Pernelle CARRON / Lloyd JONES	FRA	136.03	3	5
6	Kristina GORSHKOVA / Vitali BUTIKOV	RUS	127.45	5	6
7	Sarah ARNOLD / Justin TROJEK	CAN	107.64	8	7
8	Stefanie FROHBERG / Tim GIESEN	GER	105.10	7	8
9	Rachel TIBBETTS / Collin BRUBAKER	USA	95.86	9	9

Skate Canada Pairs Results:

1	Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE	RUS	171.40	1	2
2	Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH	CAN	170.92	5	1
3	Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS	CAN	161.15	3	3
4	Marissa CASTELLI / Simon SHNAPIR	USA	159.85	2	5
5	Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD	CAN	158.53	4	4
6	Britney SIMPSON / Nathan MILLER	USA	134.05	6	6
7	Huibo DONG / Yiming WU	CHN	129.26	7	7
8	Stacey KEMP / David KING	GBR	125.52	8	8

Synchro Sightings Anyone?

The Bryant Park rink opened last night. The Haydenettes usually perform to help ring in the holiday season and outdoor skating in New York City. Did anyone see them? I've not found YouTube clips yet.

I hope the audience realized they were watching the "next big thing" in the world of sports. I'm confident in the next few years synchronized skating will make the list of what's in and out on the "in" side.

Miami synchro has their exhibitions next Saturday. That includes a mini-practice, and seeing the programs of all Miami teams, the collegiate program, and both the short and free for the junior and senior teams. In past years, I've driven up to Oxford, Ohio to see the unveiling. Next weekend my skating club is hosting a competition and I'll be helping with the awards and pictures so I won't be making the trip. If anyone is in driving distance of the picturesque college town of Oxford, I recommend making the trip. You can stop in to the IKEA that's in the Cincinnati suburbs about 20 minutes from Oxford for some shopping or just to fill up on meatballs before heading to rink. They have a gorgeous two-rink arena for their hockey and synchro teams.

With Miami and the Haydenettes debuting their programs, that means the Dr. Porter Classic in Ann Arbor, Michigan is just around the corner. Then synchro season is on!

Has anyone seen their local synchro team lately? If you haven't you should! You'll be amazed at the speed and the sound of the blades moving in unison.

Anyone buzz about the Chicago Jazz? What's going on in Canada with Nexxice or Gold Ice? Who's going to make a move to the podium in Canada? Any of my occassional blog readers from Finland have any news on the Rockettes or any other of those amazing Finnish teams?

Trying to be flexible

I've had some work and vacation travel so I've missed some skating sessions and I haven't caught any of the NHK Trophy yet. Got back to the ice this week and I'm still plugging away at the junior moves. Trying to keep by schedule and my body flexible as I get further into my 30s.

Breakdown of junior moves practice:


Can I be this flexible and pretty?



• Rockers - outside, left hip does not want to cooperate and causes an icky straight line coming out of the right rocker before getting back to an edge; left side better due to practicing the Rocker Foxtrot compulsory dance as a kid; insides are sweet and edgy but I could go faster, way better than the spring - overall, still enjoy practicing
• Step sequence - clockwise twizzles are interesting, just trying the remember the steps sometimes - I don't practice this one enough
• Power pulls - OK, for some reason these have started to freak out me out since the summer. I think I went a long time without practicing these due to the summer ice break and when I started back I did the power pull portion full out then got twisted on the quick rocker, bracket sequence and had some stumbles so now I'm too cautious overall about it - dislike practing these as the pattern is diagonal across the ice; not as good as they were in the spring.
• Choctaws - can do edgy yet slow or fast but flat, there's no in between I feel like these are the same as they were in the spring; good work for abs when done correctly.
• Loops - these are fun, I'm starting to connect the loops by change edges; they are another good work out for abs when done correctly. So if my abs don't feel a little squeezed I know I need to do it over.

I'm doing an adult drills class too. I usually do better in a group, my competitive streak kicks in and I want to push harder and skate faster so I was looking forward to this starting up again this season, but we've mostly been working on crossovers. I know, you can always work on the basics and all skaters need to take the time to work on power stroking. I'm hearing my old coach now saying, "The Soviets spend 40 minutes of an hour session on stroking and look how they do!" Ok, ok, I'm just realizing I'm at point in skating that I stay interested learning something new as opposed to refining the basics. I'm not competing or doing a show so learning a new footwork piece just to do it is way more exciting than crossovers. I soooo need to flex my schedule next year to do synchro again.


I need another adult skater to do power pulls with instead of super-bendy 13 year old skaters who then fly into a double jump. I was thinking today I need to help my skating club get more adult skaters. The club is very youth and parent-centric. Whenever I volunteer I'm asked, "Who's your skater?" Um, I'm the skater! People in their 30s who don't coach full time and have a job during the day can skate too. We have a masters synchro team that is mostly coaches, and we have another synchro team of beginners. There's not a place a middle. There are only 5 skaters inlcuding myself who consistently take advantage of adult drills. Since it's a small group Nutcracker show practice can creep onto the ice. Skating is a great way to keep fit in the winter instead of going to a gym and running in place on a treadmill. Those professionals who want to keep fit and challenge themselves may have extra money to contribute to the club if more adult ice time was offered. I'm not quite sure where to start, but finding ways to offer some flexibility to busy, working gals and guys to skate without Nutcracker creep or 13 year olds doing double axels in their faces has got to be a good way to grow club membership and revenue.

I smell some cheesy skating made for TV

ABC announced recently that after this season's Dancing With The Stars ends, the network will debut Skating With the Stars. My first thought, "OK, this is cool, professional skating on TV that's not a Disson Skating Production." My second thought, "Yeah, but it's professionals skating with people who can't skate."

I painfully watched several shows of Skating With Celebrities on Fox four years ago. It came on just before the Torino games and by the opening ceremonies I gladly ditched Skating With Celebrities. The only teams that did well were those with a male pair skater as the pro who could lift the skater. The other teams basically showed how difficult it is to learn to skate. Plus, the celebrities were way below the D-list and when you've got the Olympics on, even casual fans and channel flippers are going to select the Olympics over Todd Bridges and Debbie Gibson doing swizzles in sequins. The show fizzled out with the swizzles and went to the place TV shows go to die.

However, skating with stars/celebrities and other shiny, happy people have been quite successful in other countries. Torvill and Dean have Dancing On Ice in Britain, Katarina Witt did a show in Germany, there's been one in France and Russia has had several seasons of a shiny, happy people paired with skating greats. From what I've read of the Russian show on blogs and forums, it's as big as Dancing With The Stars is on ABC in the US.

I think the coolest shiny, happy people and professional skater show is in Canada, Battle of the Blades. This show combines female figure skaters with male hockey players. I think it works by that dynamic of bringing hockey and figure skaters together with the benefit everyone can skate. Way more to watch great skaters do something new and fun instead of people trying to learn to not wobble on skates while trying to bust a move. This way, you get the lifts and get to see big, tough hockey dudes having to groove to the music. I think it would be even cooler if the Canadian show threw in some female hockey players like Manon Rheaume and Cammie Grannato with a male figure skater. That would rock and chicks can play hockey too!

So I'm curious how ABC will pull this off. If they will have pro skaters that can lift the chicks. Or if they will go more of a dancing route and not worry about overhead lifts and do more adagio pairs skating. Whatever the model I think they should try to pull from those shiny, happy people with skating backgrounds. Keanu Reeves was a hockey player, I think I've read Rachel McAdams was a figure skater. Wasn't there a Miss USA contestant recently that was a competitive skater? Oh, what about Vera Wang? How sweet would that be? Get some celebs that would be rusty with their skating skills in the mix that would make it more fun. Vera Vang and Keanu Reeves... on ice. Nice.

So this is NOT Vera Wang or Keanu Reeves skating. It's the lovely Katia Gordeeva who is as timeless, elegant and put together as any Vera Wang piece skating with Valeri Bure on this season's Battle of the Blades. You're welcome. =)



Anyone want to share their thoughts on the possible "Stars" as well as the skating pros?

ISU JGP Czech Skate Results and Junior Grand Prix Finalists

The 2010 Czech Skate in Ostrava, Czech Republic marks the final event of the Junior Grand Prix this season. Here are the medalists and selected skaters:
Men
Artur Dimitriev Jr. made a big leap from 6th to 2nd to skate away with a silver medal here. Keegan Messing was a solid 4th.

1	Han YAN	CHN	193.62	1	1
2	Artur DMITRIEV	RUS	185.73	6	2
3	Alexander MAJOROV	SWE	180.73	2	3
4	Keegan MESSING	USA	177.90	4	4

Ladies
Congratulations to Vanessa Lam getting winning here. Risa Shoji and Polina Shelepen got their second Grand Prix medals at this event.

1	Vanessa LAM	USA	156.41	1	2
2	Risa SHOJI	JPN	155.23	4	1
3	Polina SHELEPEN	RUS	152.92	2	3

 -----

5

Kiri BAGA

USA

137.28

3

5

 Pairs

1	Xiaoyu YU / Yang JIN	CHN	138.66	5	1
2	Ashley CAIN / Joshua REAGAN	USA	134.14	1	2
3	Natasha PURICH / Raymond SCHULTZ	CAN	131.77	2	3

Ice Dance

1	Ekaterina PUSHKASH / Jonathan GUERREIRO	RUS	136.80	1	1
2	Tiffany ZAHORSKI / Alexis MIART	FRA	127.82	2	2
3	Anastasia GALYETA / Alexei SHUMSKI	UKR	124.14	4	3

After the series, the top point earners move on the Grand Prix Final this December in Beijing. Here are the finalists:
Men

• Andrei Rogozine CAN
• Han Yan CHN
• Joshua Farris USA
• Keegan Messing USA
• Richard Dornbush USA
• Max Aaron USA
• Zhan Bush RUS
• Gordei Gorshkov RUS

Ladies

• Adelina Sotnikova RUS
• Elizaveta Tiktamisheva RUS
• Risa Shoji JPN
• Polina Shelepen RUS
• Christina Gao USA
• Yasmin Siraj USA
• Kristiene Gong USA
• Kiri Baga USA

Pairs

•  Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov RUS
• Wenjing Sui/Cong Han CHN
• Xiaoyu Yu/Yang Jin CHN
• Narumi Takahashi/ Mervin Tran JPN
• Natasha Purich/Raymond Schultz CAN
• Anna Silaeva/Artur Minchuk RUS
• Ashley Cain/Joshua Reagan USA
• Taylor Steele/Robert Schultz CAN

Ice Dance

• Ksenia Monko/Kirill Khaliavin RUS
• Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin RUS
• Ekaterina Pushkash/Jonathan Guerreiro RUS
• Charlotte Lichtman/Dean Copely USA
• Evgenia Kosigina/Nikolai Moroshkin RUS
• Victoria Sinitsina/Ruslan Zhiganshin RUS
• Anastasia Galyeta/Alexei Shumski UKR
• Marina Antipova/Artem Kudashev RUS