The Past 24 Hours In Skating

About this time last night, Evan Lysacek made his DWTS debut with a Viennese Waltz. Watching him, I was reminded that he's never been that artistic of a skater, and his on artistry mostly consists of arms up, arms out straight and jazz hands around the face. I thought he looked a tiny bit nervous and stiff but overall he did a good job. He's in 2nd with the judges marks, but we'll see how the audience reacts a week from today.

During the rehearsal piece prior to his performance, he mentioned he was spinning the wrong way in the dance. I don't know if viewers picked up on that. In ice skating, skaters typically spin in a counter-clockwise direction. Perimeter skating is generally done counter-clockwise as well. Skaters who spin and rotate their jumps clockwise are often referred to as "opposite skaters". I would say for Evan, it's somewhat like driving on the right side of the road and then driving on the left side in Great Britain for a few days. It's executing similar movements to what moves are done everyday, but it feels way different. So different it makes you hesitate and hyper-aware of the awkwardness.

After enjoying the rest of DWTS, I nestled into bed until my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I stretched and found myself so at peace in dark and quiet with my dog and husband snuggled up to me. My brain hasn't felt that clear for awhile, I've been over thinking project plans at home and work so it was nice. Unfortunately, I kept too much of that quiet stillness with me at the rink. I could never really get warmed up so I ditched my plan to emulate the lovely Shae-Lynn Bourne with her ice dancer's Axel.

I got frustrated with the outside rockers in my junior moves instead. After checking the rocker, the hips are supposed to rotate underneath the shoulders to deepen the edge and cross in front. I've created an exercise of simply gliding on a back outside edge and rotating my hips. It's a good exercise for double loops too. I always feel a little stuck after the check - that my check isn't a true check, just a person stuck! I'm either good at rotating the hips or good at maintaining speed, I can't seem to combine both.

Much better skaters than I took to the ice in Torino, Italy today. I didn't get to watch any of the skaters who can properly check and skate with outside rockers. I followed the event via Twitter. (Most of the tweets related to the compulsory dance were "Woohoo! I skated my last compulsory!" I'll be so sad if the ISU votes compulsories out. That's another post.)

The ice dance event followed the Olympic results pretty closely. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are leading Meryl Davis and Charlie White. The Italians are in 3rd.

The US skaters did great in the short program, earning season's best scores. The leaders are Pang & Tong, Kavaguti & Smirnov and Savchenko & Szolkowy.

Last Week of March, Last Week of Skating

Ah, March, my favorite month! The month where the grass turns green and bulbs bloom. The weekends are filled with exciting basketball games and bracket analyzing during the work day. It's also a month that features the climax of the skating season with the world championships.

This year's worlds are probably a bit anticlimatic as the Olympics occured in February. Two of the Olympic gold medalists are competing at worlds this year, Virtue & Moir and the Queen, Yu-Na Kim. Since the mid-90's the Olympic medalists, particularly the golden winners have been ducking out of worlds. It will be a treat in Torino to have two of the Olympic champions competing.

While some skating fans are bemoaning the lack of TV coverage of the event, I'm excited that the ENTIRE event will be streamed on Universal Sports' site. Generally when it's on TV, they only show the top  6 skaters and the Americans. This way skate fans will get to enjoy all the performances, observe up and coming skaters, and see how the penultimate group impacts the final standings. I love seeing Chris Anderson's long tail theory working in accessing figure skating online! I'll be going to work early and hitting the Java Brewing Co. on the corner to watch before work.

This week got started with bonus skating on TV. The finale of Thin Ice rocked on Sunday. I totally want this to become a series in the fall. It was dorky but fun. It was a great show skating talent outside of a serious competition. Shae-Lynn Bourne skated to Lady Gaga with John Zimmerman and did an Axel! She's an ice dancer and she did an Axel! I'm so getting my 30-something behind to do an Axel this week. Screw the Junior Moves, it's all about Axels.

Tonight has skating related TV too, with Dancing With The Stars premiering with Evan Lysacek. I'm sure there will be plenty of goofy skating references and "pressure" hyped up with Kristi Yamaguchi's win. As long as Evan can balance DWTS and touring with Stars On Ice so he doesn't suffer a career-blowing injury more power to him. I just want to Buzz Aldrin do his version of a moonwalk and the original Octo-Mom, Kate Gosselin gone.

Top Ten Ways To Make The Most Of A Gold Medal

So Evan continues to milk that gold medal for all it's worth. Monday was the Dancing With The Stars announcement, Tuesday he showed up on Letterman and did the Top Ten. Good for him, he's a cutey and it's got to be hard for a male figure skating medalist to get long lasting endorsements outside skating.

Weeeee!!!!!!! Don't pull your Lutz!

Ballroom Dancing = No Quad Zone

Evan Lysacek announced last week that he will not be competing at the World Championships in Torino to defend his title. He will instead spend his spring dancing, with stars.

Evan will be one of the "stars" on ABC's 10th season of Dancing With The Stars. Is there a mirrorball trophy in Evan's future ala other Olympic gold medalists Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Ohno? Will Vera Wang continue to design his performance wear? How will he wear his hair?

Vancouver Men's Long - Spin Focus

I'm going to try to focus on the spins in this post as everyone else focuses on the jumps! I'm also only noting the skaters I see on the NBC broadcast.

Jeremy Abbott - Nice flying sit, good position in the sit change sit with a change to a forward inside edge, wobbled on the first camel rotation then back to the good, low and extended sit spin positions. Glad you focused and fought Jeremy! I'm proud of you. 149.56 free, 218.96 total.

Takahiko Kozuka - Flying change foot combo - way low in sit spin, cool upside down manuever; sit change sit with the foot tucked behind making a little ball position, nice; camel not as stretched as it could be but nice speed and extension in the sit spins, excellent blur scratch spin to finish. How often do you see a fast scratch spin these days? Thanks for that treat Takahiko! Like Sandra Bezic said on the broadcast he has a pure skating technique. I'm really looking forward to watching him over the seasons to come. 151.60 free, 231.19 total.

Denis Ten - Flying Camel Spin that started with good stretch and then almost immediately switched to inside and grabbed his blade. I wish he just held the initial extension, it was a good position. Change foot sit spin that featured resting his foot above the knee on both sides. Oooo, a Bielmann in his combo spin! Threw several positions in the combo spin, wish he picked two out of four and held longer and centered. 135.01 free, 211.25 total.

Huh, NBC showed Tony Dungy and Jerry Jones are in the seats watching. That's different. Wonder what they think of the event.

Florent Amodio - love this music from the Amelie soundtrack, superb speed, positions and centering in the combo spin; inside edge entry to back sit, then change sit and a nice tucked under position;  super sweet tuck position in flying sit, displaying snowboard-like "big air" with that flying sit tuck position. Loved the straight-line footwork preceding it too. This is a performance I'll look up on YouTube to relax and enjoy skating. 134.95 free, 210.30 total.

Patrick Chan - Nice position on a centered and fast sit. Good transition to another edge by pulling in his leg and placing his foot on his knee. Classic sit change sit after the half way mark. Camel, sit spin with unique arm position as part of combo. The crowd cheers are the end! Another program I'll go back too, loved the knee action and glide in his footwork sequences. Good jump technique too. I'm going to enjoy watching him over the next four years, stay healthy Patrick! 160.30 free, 241.42 total.

Michal Brezina - Flying sit with a good air position like Florent's, little wobble on a revolution; sit change sit with a change to an inside edge on the back sit; running out of steam but nice inside edge into back camel for the combo that included more sit spins and camels. He seems to rock to back of his blade in his sit spins and then quickly corrects. I must squeeze in a bit about his jumps. He has a great position in the air, really nice, tight leg position. Good edge riding out of his jumps as well. This is first time I saw him skate on TV instead of a web feed. It was so enjoyable on a bigger screen. 137.93 free, 216.73 total.

Penultimate group done, big guys warming up! Great six minutes of skating - but they decide to go to commercial. Argh.

Realizing as I watch Evan at the boards with Frank Carroll that he is first and Evgeny is last... remembering Michelle and Tara skating order in Nagano. Don't hesitate Evan, go for it!

Evan Lysacek - good position for a tall skater in a sit spin, pulled his leg into a wrap; jump not as high as others in flying sit, but again he's tall it's hard to tuck that daddy-long leg underneath; extended camel could have been held longer, beautiful, fast and centered sit spins that he held for about 10 revolutions each into great extended catch-foot spin to end. I felt I could see him thinking and not performing the first half of the performance. He built energy at the end, good skate. 167.37 free, 257.67 total.

Nobunari Oda - like the lift in the death drop into the sit spin position, good to see a spin earlier in the skate; oh, shades of Tonya Harding with a broken skate lace. Well that's a nice spin after retying his skates, his sit spin position is reminiscent of a curled up cat. Good combo spin with the same curled-cat position as well as nice camel positions. So calm and focused with the skate lace snafu! 153.69 free, 238.54 total.

Stephane Lambiel - La Traviata music; flying camel with excellent arm position along with leg extension; oh this ending combo spin is bringing a big and well deserved cheer from the crowd, camel with hands clasped behind the back, sit spins with about 12 revolutions each and changing arm positions throughout. Love how he streches an arm in the air during his sit and it looks like he could balance a plate better than a restaurant waiter on that hand as the spin is so centered. Then the combo ends with a "headless" back scratch where he's tipped his head back and he's just a blur. Looked a bit tight throughout, but I'm glad he made his comeback. I've missed him! 162.09 free, 246.72 total.

Daisuke Takahashi - nice variety of positions in his sit spins, he works the changes in foot and edge by extending and pulling in while adding features to the spin; cute flying sit, but not the same height and tuck as others, good move to go from a low sit into an extended camel, that's difficult; back camel, back scratch with leg crossed behind into scratch. I enjoy his spins as he puts effort into unique positions instead of the same old same old. Similar to Lambiel but missing the speed. 156.98 free, 247.43 total

Johnny Weir - Spin stumble! He seemed to catch his toepick while on the inside edge in the sit, will be reflected in the GOE. Nice death drop into sit, love how he drapes his upper body with a beautivully arched back over his extended free leg in his sit spins. Running threes into a camel, the gorgeous sit position again, extended catch-foot spin. The audience roars! I've got tears in my eyes, thank you for that skate Johnny, that was wonderful. 156.77 free, 238.87 total.

Evgeny Plushenko - Death drop into sit, not as low as Johnny or Evan, back slouched over; fast sit spin combo, impressed; choreography looks so silly after the last few skaters; back camel, sit, funky upright spin, slooow camel, funky upright with contorted arms, scratch and it's done. 165.51 free, Lysacek wins! Frank Carroll coached a gold medalist! 256.36 total.

Oh Plushenko, so close! Only quad combo of the evening and an amazing comeback. I'm sure he's disappointed, but he should be proud of the comeback effort and still being able to land a quad combo under pressure.

Proud of you Evan!

To Quad Or Not To Quad, Part 2

NBC hasn't broadcast the men's long yet, although from tweets it appears Jeremy Abbott is already skating as I type.

Also as I type the quad hype continues. Since Tuesday the media has created an epic storyline of Plushenko's athleticism vs. Evan Lysacek's artistry. Evan Lysacek as an artist? That's another debate. Plushy is still lambasting those without a quad while commentators like Paul Wylie are quick to point out the difference in Evgeny's and Evan's component scores.

I thought the most interesting voice in the dialogue is Tom Zakrajsek's on his blog. Zakrajsek is coaching in his first Olympics with Rachel Flatt and has a few skaters practicing and completing quads. He seems to share the thoughts that skating is moving backward with fewer people attempting quads,

"Last I checked the Olympic motto was faster, higher, stronger....not risk-freeer, safer, lesser. When you add the suffix "er" to a word it means "more." If a man wins the Olympic figure skating title without a quad will our sport be advancing in the spirit of the Olympics?"

 Now, Zakrajsek is NOT slamming those who did not attempt a quad. He's a brilliant coach and is advancing the sport with his leadership and professionalism alone. He is merely expressing his opinion on the difficulty of completing a quad and how it could be rewarded in the judging.

However, it made me think the real tragedy in the quad debate is that few men seem to be seriously practicing the quad throughout the season. With so much risk to be penalized in the quad attempt and more opportunities to earn points on other components, I think we're seeing fewer quads due to a lack of focusing on them. It takes some pain to get a consistent quad and then it takes additional energy to complete one during the 4:30 min free skate.

Evan has faced injuries from training the quad and did not attempt one in competition until January. He said all season long he was building to put one in during the Olympics. However, as he laid out solid performances on the Grand Prix circuit, he didn't get the practice in of attempting a quad under pressure. I don't think he's mentally prepared for throwing down a quad much less physically prepared.

Evgeny, on the other hand, consistently practices quads and has put them in his programs in the few competitions he's entered this season. After three years away to come out with the quad took some serious blood and sweat that allows him to be mentally ready for the demands of completing a quadruple jump in competition. I expect to see it tonight and if he wins, I'm confident the rest of the field will take the time to practice a quad to get it competition ready and then start breaking them out next season.

Vancouver Men's Short

I'm so not going to be able to sleep tonight and tomorrow's my day to get up early and skate. What a night of skating. The hype for the men's event was worth it.

The broadcast started with fluff on Evgeny Plushenko interviewing him while driving through St. Petersburg with shots of old Lenin statues throughout. He said he bought a fast car just to have some risk in his life and now he wants to be like Dick Button y winning back to back gold. I would love to see Evgeny Plushenko live into his 80s as a commentator as well. Plushenko is a bit of a modern day Muhammad Ali with his smack-talk.

Plushenko looked a bit nervous and stiff tonight. He hit the quad-combo, triple Axel and triple Lutz. I've seen stronger landings from him before, but what cajones land those three jumps at the Olympics after being retired for 3 years! 90.85 points put him into the lead and he held on the rest of the night.

Daisuke Takahashi WOW! Triple flip + Triple toe, triple Axel, triple Lutz. Fantastic footwork to tango rhythms. 90.25

Stephane Lambiel has always had difficulty with triple Axels, so he only planned a double. He's generally solid with his quad, but he stepped out in the combination. The footwork and spins were classic Lambiel. Always impressed with how centered his spins are. 84.63

Nobunari Oda skated and I didn't find anything really memorable about it. I like his long better, this was very business-like and earned a solid 84.85. I did get a slight sense he was imitating Lysacek with big arm movements and leg extensions. Lysacek does those moves because he's tall and they didn't fit the compact Oda.

Brian Joubert came out with an opportunity as Lambiel missed the quad and Takahashi didn't do one. Oooh, he steps out! Swivels hips. Triple Axel easy! Triple Lutz... he's down. He went through the motions the rest of the skate. He picked up the energy a bit in the straight line sequence realizing he would need to earn some points... he earning all of 68 points. He put so much pressure on himself to do well at the Olympics, awful to watch his dream fade away.

Takahiko Kozuka makes it 3 for 3 for Japan. They make skating at the Olympics look easy. 79.59

Patrick Chan stepped to plate next to the roar of the Canadian crowd. He stepped out of his triple Axel but then executed a triple combo and triple Lutz. Sweet to see a circular footwork sequence go in the opposite (clockwise) direction, then a weird step on the straight line sequence where he nearly tripped. Finally, he ended the program after the music so it ran 2:51. One point time deduction and earns 81.12.

Johnny Weir skated to I Love You, I Hate You but the audience was all about the love. He earned much love from the crowd with triple Lutz + triple toe, triple Axel, triple flip. Playful program after the jumps were through. They played Lady Gaga's Poker Face while he sat in the Kiss'n'Cry, but then seemingly low scores popped up prompting boos from the crowd. He received a negative grade of execution on the flip so I'm guessing a wrong-edge takeoff was called there. 82.10

Watched the OT of the UK-Mississippi State game and missed Kevin van der Perren. I don't think I missed much other than his costume. Several tweets it would glow in the dark. 72.90

UK also took precedence over Tomas Verner. He doubled his planned quad and finished behind Joubert. 65.32

Evan Lysacek is back to the Edward Featherhands look and his program took off! Bad writing, I know, sorry. Textbook landings on his triple flip, triple Lutz + triple toe, triple Axel. Besides the jumps he commanded the ice with his deep edges and speed. Spins second best to Lambiel with speed and centering. So proud of him to be able to focus and perform while making it look natural. I thought it would be close between him and Plushenko and Lysacek might pull ahead. My mind tried to remember how many times Evan has been in the lead after the short in a major international competition, I think he does better as an underdog in the free. He'll be the best an underdog can be with 90.30 points right behind Plushenko's 90.85.

Jeremy Abbott skated next and I don't want to type about it. Crushing. Jeremy you're free sings and pigs can fly, Thursday's free skate is another day. 69.40

Good Night, try to go to bed!

To Quad Or Not To Quad

If Shakespeare was sweating under Broadway's lights or sipping coffee before a slam poetry reading today, I think he could find some inspiration in the stories of the men taking to ice tonight. Particularly as the ponder the worth of completing a quadruple jump as they take the Olympic ice.

The Quad
Baseball has the homerun. That amazing athletic feat of hitting a ball that took barely a second to travel from the pitcher's mound to the plate and to hit hit over 400 feet is hallowed by baseball fans. The difference between a hit and homerun a combination of the pitch, and the speed and strength of the batter in his swing.

Figure skating has the quad, any jump done completed with 4 revolutions in the air before landing on one foot. It takes speed and strength and the precision of setting up the jump and landing on a narrow steel blade.

A decade ago the quad was the future of the sport with top skaters conducting jump seminars in their skating programs. Elvis Stojko, Ilia Kulik, Alexei Urmanov, Michael Weiss, Timothy Goebel & Alexei Yagudin pushed the sport from quad toes to quad combinations, multiple quads in a freeskate, and a quad for the short just to be in contention. These skaters represented the best of North America and Europe. Everyone was training a quad.

As the quads increased, the age old skating debate of artistry vs athleticism heated up. Then came the IJS awarding points for completing a quad successfully, and the deductions for underrotating or falling on a quad. The base value of a quad toe is 9.8 points, but a fall counts as zero plus one point deduction. That debate of whether the quad is worth it is reaching a boiling point on the eve of the men's short.

Brian Joubert and Evgeny Plushenko have made statements of the quad being everything in men's skating. Brian Joubert maintains a quad should be worth more and worth the risk of performing one in competition. He says,

There is pressure when you try a quad and there is pressure after it, because it is more difficult to do the next jump.

He has also lamented the lack of quads in skating these days and insists it is the future of the sport.

For all of his talk of quads as king, it would seem that his skating has suffered. After the Torino Games, he was on top the world the following season. He was the first skater to land three quads in a free skate that 2006-2007 and he capped it off with win at the world championships. Since then, he's experienced some illness and injuries. He seems to be able to easily overcome those, but not overcome the weight of the expectations he's put on himself to complete all of his jumps.

His North American competitors have seemed to play some head games with him on the quad topic. Patrick Chan of Canada in particular has reminded reporters while mentioning Joubert that his countyman Jeff Buttle won a world title without a quad. In fact, no one since Joubert has won worlds with a quad. While Joubert lands one, he falls on a triple making the pursuit of quad perfection questionable.

Most of the North American men will not attempt a quad this week in competition. Nancy Amour tweeted that Johnny Weir busted out the quad in practice (nice head games Johnny!) and Jeremy Abbott completed one in his win at US Nats but is more focused on adding a second triple Axel in the free. Evan Lysacek won his world title last year without one and thinks the rest of his skating is strong enough that he doesn't need it.

The North American skaters have used transitions, solid triples, spins and footwork to their advantage under IJS. They read the rules and the great points from the quad, but did the math and saw more points are to be had with other elements. While the Europeans have focused on quads, the transitions between jumps have suffered.

Still, Evan was planning on adding the jump to his free skate until last week. He has chimed in with Joubert on occasion that a quad keeps up the challenge and pushes boundaries in men's skating. Recently, he said he feared he had reinjured his foot. X-rays proved he does not have the stress fracture that bothered him last spring, but he doesn't want to risk it with a quad in his free skate.

With so many top competitors not planning to do quads or willing to take their quad out, why all the fuss?

The Quad 2010

Brian Joubert's pining for the old days of 15 top skaters doing quads is coming back to haunt him. Evgeny Plushenko and Stephane Lambiel have come out of retirement and beat him at Europeans. Both have solid quads, and Plushenko will probably do a  quad-combo in the short and multiple quads in the long. Stephane Lambiel does more quads than triple Axels in his free skate.

Patrick Chan isn't scared, he said this week of Plushenko's skating,

He has the confidence that he doesn't need to do the transitions because he can do what I think is a magnificent quad. But he's old!

The pendulum still swings in the debate of artistry vs. athleticism.  Perhaps a better question is what is more athletic? Skating with complex and fast transitions that take deep knee bends to maintain the speed for four minutes or accelerating down the ice into a quad Salchow-triple toe-double loop combo during a four minute program?

Of course Daisuke Takahashi and Jeremy Abbott can do transitions and quads, proving you can have both and there's no need for debate!

What do you think, to quad or not to quad?

Evan Stays Up Late

Evan chatted with Jay Leno last night on his 10:00 show. I learned that Evan has quite the routine prior to competition which includes using the same urinal. Oh Evan, you didn't have to share that tidbit. A simple putting on your skates the same way would have been great.

Jay noted that he likes Evan's skating attire, that it reminds him of Gene Kelly. He likes that Evan looks like a regular guy who can dance and skate. What a great compliment! I hope Evan keeps that in mind with his next consultation with Vera Wang. I don't think Gene Kelly wore feathers much.

Senior Men's Championship in Spokane

Evan Lysacek 2nd, Jeremy Abbott 1st, Johnny Weir 3rd, Ryan Bradley 4th

 After yesterday's championship free skate, I'm so pumped for the US team heading to Vancouver. We're sending the reigning World Champion, and three men who have each won two National titles. They've also shown they can deliver under pressure.

I'm especially proud of Jeremy Abbott. I'm going to bring brownies into work tomorrow so my colleagues can experience the joy of watching that free skate. He did a quad toe as if it took no effort, and then completed 8 triples. Each move just flowed into into each the other seamlessly. No long and thought out set ups into the jump elements, just strong edgework and flow through out. Watching it was like a warm, chewy brownie that makes you go "mmm...." It was that good! Total beat down on the other skaters. The crowd got on their feet while he was still in his last spin. Go Jeremy!

Evan Lysacek shed his basic black and feathers for a steel-gray tone. He threw in his quad toe for good measure and was bit short on the rotation and went down. Otherwise, he skated like the World Champ he is, with increased difficulty from the Grand Prix events. He shrugged off missing gaining the National title back with peaking in Vancouver in mind. He was glad to get some practice of doing a quad in a pressure-filled competition.

Johnny Weir skated around in a new costume that included fur and that was the highlight of his skate. His short program kept him on the Olympic team and got him a bronze medal. He skated this program better at the NHK Trophy, but I think he's never capitalized on COP in this freeskate. It doesn't help when he skates tentatively with this program.

I felt a little debate would have been deserved during the selection committee meeting making the Olympic and World Team picks between Johnny and Ryan Bradley. Ryan laid down a challenge with his free skate and two quad program at the beginning of the last group. He's been inconsistent in the short all season, and often does a quad but then botches his triples. Johnny always seems a bit more interested in Johnny which leads to some inconsistency as well. I think the committee could have debated who might be challenged to give the skate of their life by getting the honor of skating in Vancouver. I think Ryan would have, but Johnny's got the Olympic experience to begin with. OpEd off.

NBC did an OK job with the broadcast. Both Icenetwork and NBC had been promoting the same schedule that Icenetwork would show the first few groups and that NBC would show the final two. Unfortunately, NBC only showed the last group and also requested a moratorium on tweets and other reports during the penultimate group. So no one saw that group which is kinda silly. I'm sure people would easily switch from Icenetwork to TV and perhaps a bit more excitement would be brought into the broadcast.

News and Blogs:

Jeremy Abbott Wins Second Straight Skating Title - Los Angeles Times

Abbott Defends Skating Title with a Flourish - New York Times

Aspen's Abbott Leads US Men's Figure Skating Squad - Denver Post

Aaron's Blog

Eric's Blog - Minnesota Ice

Mr. Zamboni Man

Senior Men's Short in Spokane

Stayed up late Friday to watch Icenetwork's broadcast of the senior men's short at the U.S. National Champs in Spokane. After a little aggravation that the event didn't actually start at 9:45 as listed, I was treated to some great skates by Johnny Weir and Jeremy Abbot. (The Opening Ceremony started at 9:45 with "Thank You Spokane!" speeches from half of US Figure Skating, and then some kids skated as the flag, then they cut the ice again. All while I could have finished watching an episode of The Tudors with my husband. Argh!)

Johnny Weir skated second and gave a first rate performance. I haven't seen him skate with such command since his "Swan" short in the last Olympic season. Jeremy Abbott ended the first group of five with his "Day in the Life" short. It's an Abbott classic and garnished him an impressive score. I was eager to see Ryan Bradley do well, and he landed a soaring quad toe-triple toe combo but then doubled his Axel and Lutz. I'd never seen Keegan Messing or Johnathan Cassar before and wow, sorry I've missed them before. (OMG, the spread eagle Cassar does could be shown to cancer patients. It would raise endorphin levels and assist with defeating cancer. It's that wicked-good.)

My late night skating spectatoring ended a bit after Grant Hochstein. I had the pleasure of watching Grant skate in person at the 2007 Eastern Great Lakes Regionals in the novice division. Glad to see he's still going at it and impressing the judges at the senior championship. After Grant, Icenetwork really started cutting in and out. As it approached 1:00 a.m. Eastern, I finally logged out and hit the sack. I missed Evan Lysacek and Adam Rippon. I did see a bit of Evan's warm up in between blackouts. He was minus the feather gloves, I guess he ditched the "Evan Featherhands" look for Nats. Despite the new look, he apparently stepped out of his triple Axel.

It's Jeremy in first, Evan in second, Johnny in third.

I'm boring - here's what the journalists and other bloggers had to say about the event:
Jeremy Abbott Looks Ahead With Confidence - Detroit Free Press

Abbott Prevails at US Skating Championship - New York Times

Abbott, Lysacek, Weir Dominate - Los Angeles Times

Abbott's 'Day in the Life' Finds Him In First - USA Today

Lysacek's Brilliant Performance Doesn't Impress US Judges - USA Today

Aaron's Blog: Axels, Loops, and Spins

Laura's Blog: Required Elements 

Skate America

Ugh, I've not been able to shake an upper respiratory thing... I missed all my skating practices this week due to this pesky cough. I set my alarm and got up at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday as I had been feeling better, and having a scheduled lesson instead of one that was snuck in due to people not showing was motivating. However, as I started to get dressed I could tell my congestion was going to get worse if I exercised in cold air. Oh well. I decided to work from home and spent some break time watching Skate America on IceNetwork. Here are some of my faves from the competition in Lake Placid:

Yu-Na Kim's short program. Love the James Bond-girl theme. She plays it well. Love how the James Bond music isn't overbearing and selections throughout the movies are used. Yu-Na built a large lead coming into the free program. Which she needed as Rachel Flatt rocked her free skate.

Rachel Flatt winning the free skate despite her last two spins not even counting. She did a combination spin, but the steps between her change of foot were too wide. This made the combo spin count as two separate spins. However, since she already completed individual spins she maxed out on spin elements. So her last 10 seconds basically didn't count. She could have just stood there and would have won the free skate. She's solid, but she still doesn't have great pizzazz and panache in her skating. Still I was excited for her.

I also enjoyed Evan Lysacek's dominating performances. The feather-hands in the Firebird short program are growing on me. I've heard they look much better in person. He seems to be focused and building a strong collection of performances in route to the Olympics.

I felt fortunate to be able to experience Belbin & Agosto's Golden Waltz in the compulsory dance. Wow! That is how waltzes on ice are to be done. I hope NBC spends time broadcasting some of the compulsories during the Olympics. The compulsories really separate the skaters, you can truly break down the skill level of the couples.

I also must say I enjoyed Adrian Schultheiss from Sweden skating in a straight jacket to Insane in the Membrane and Pac-Man. Ryan Bradley medaling after landing two quads whilst channeling Scott Hamilton was fun too.

Romping through the Far East and Midwest

A couple of weekends ago, I got up early and let the dog out. Then I plopped in front of my laptop to watch bits of the men's and pairs' competition at Cup of China. Crazy time differences, I was seeing their evening performances in my slippers over the live feed.

Cup of China was a "comeback" comp for Shen & Zhao and comeback they did. I enjoyed the free program, it was easy to watch. The side-by-side jumps were probably a bit too far apart, but overall an excellent skate.

Cup of China was the debut of some of North America's Olympic medal contenders. Belbin & Agosto won the ice dance event, Evan Lysacek medaled in the men's event, and Mirai Nagasu & Rachel Flatt had nice outings in the front of the judges and their international competition. Joannie Rochette of Canada had a disappointing short but bounced back with her superior freeskate to Saint-Saens "Sampson & Delilah."

I must say I was a tad disappointed in the Americans. Evan Lysacek skated well, he was downgraded on a jump in each program, but the programs looked good. While the music was new, his programs have come to have a predictable pattern. I was slightly distracted from that pattern watching the short. He's skating to "Firebird" and has a black outfit, with long black feathers at the end of the sleeves. It kept giving me an image of Edward Scissorhands... all in black with these big, dangling, useless hands... except with feathers. Lose the feathers Evan!

I caught the ladies short and was thrilled that Mirai Nagasu had a good skate. She managed first which was a big improvement over everything last season. I expected more from Rachel Flatt with her "Sing, Sing, Sing" short. The YouTube clip of her performance at a summer competition gave me hope that she added some pizzazz to her consistency. However, the program just didn't seem to fill the big arena their in Beijing. She somehow appeared to be skating on ice twice as big as her competitors.

Belbin & Agosto chose a Moldovian theme for their original folk dance. Then they skated to a version of Ava Maria. The Ava Maria program is beautiful and features interesting lifts, however, I thought it was an odd choice for them. Since changing coaches prior to last season, I feel they have become more confident in their technical skill which especially has helped them in the compulsory portion of the competition. However, I their programs seem like they are coming straight out the Soviet School of Ice Dancing. I don't feel they are really offering anything new to the sport. Of course, skating passionately to Ava Maria is rite of passage in skating and Soviet/Russian ice dancers have demonstrated a winning formula of angst-ridden performances. I just Belbin & Agosto could be legendary with their talent by creating something entirely new. They're playing it conservative to win, while I think if they went outside of the box, not only would they win, they would blow everyone away.

I really think Meryl Davis and Charlie White are skating outside of the box this year with their Bollywood-inspired original dance. Watching Belbin & Agosto and then Davis & White in back to back competitions proves really brings that home to me. Davis and White have excellent technique and speed and I think their originality in their programs demonstrates those skills.

Davis and White completely left their competitors in the dust at the NHK Trophy. I was in Chicago over the weekend. I got to enjoy the weather for a weekend holiday shopping spree but the hotel didn't have free wifi so I missed my morning ritual of watching the live feed from Asia.

So glad to catch up on the NHK Trophy mid-week after work. Brian Joubert is back! He looked Yagudin-like out there. There was such command of the ice and energy in his performances. I haven't really seen that from him for awhile.

Johnny Weir actually put together two solid skates in the same competition. He earned a silver souvenir for that accomplishment. Jeremy Abbott debuted his programs for the season. Love the short, "Day in a Life" awesomeness. Jeremy, note to self, ice shavings are very apparent on black outfits so don't fall on every jump in the long! Daisuke Takahashi was back after injury last season. Wow, I missed him, he's programs fill the arena. Hope those jumps make a complete recovery after injury too.

Enjoyed the Kerrs free dance to Krwling too.

I've been getting the hang of choctaws and my rockers are back to what I could do well 10 years ago. I think I may pass my junior MITF by February!