Ladies Night

It's Ladies Night at the Olympics. Will the top three mirror the top at Worlds last year?

So many skaters to enjoy!

Tugba Karademir skates 7th

Mirai Nagasu is the first American skating 11th. Her coach said she's going for a triple-triple in the short. Cute program for a young, bubbly teenager to Pirates of the Caribbean.

Elene Gedevanishvili skates 16th for Georgia. If she's broadcast on NBC, I'm sure they'll be several mentions of the Georgian slider and the fatal mishap on the luge track. Elene's skating could leave a bright memory at the mention of the tiny Georgian nation.

Sarah Meier is right after skating 17th continuing the tradition of Swiss spinning mastery and elegance.

Kiira Korpi and Laura Lepisto of Finland skate 19th and 21st respectively. I love Finnish skaters.

Mao Asada will attempt the triple Axel skating 22nd.

Right after Mao, Yu-Na Kim will be out as a Bond girl. Will she cave under the weight of being the favorite or blow away the competition?

Akiko Suzuki of Japan has had a phenominal season, and she'll have a tough act to follow Kim however she skates.

The crowd will erupt with supportive applause and cheers as Joannie Rochette takes the ice to skate 26th. Sadly, her mother suffered a heart attack this weekend and past away. She came into these Games looking to capture the Canadian pride Elizabeth Manley earned in on the Calgary podium. She's the reigning world silver medalist, but has had an up and down season. I've heard she's looked focused in practice since getting the news of her mother. It's still tough to handle nerves in any competition, not to mention the emotions of suddenly losing someone.

After the emotions get charged, Julia Sebestyen of Hungary will skate in her fourth Olympics. She's a few years younger than I am, so I'm impressed that she's still at it.

Rachel Flatt, "The Rock" will skate 28th as the only skater who has beaten Yu-Na this year. She won the free skate at Skate American handily over Yu-Na.

Carolina Kostner, the European champion is 29th.

Miki Ando, the reigning world bronze medalist closes out the competition. She had a great Grand Prix season, but faltered at Japanese nationals. She can go either way tonight.

Rochette's Loss

Just heard the news that Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette's mother died yesterday shortly after arriving in Vancouver. Joannie is so strong physically, I pray she will find inner strength and have a tight support group of friends, family and skaters.

Getting Closer to Vancouver

Sign that the Winter Olympic Games are closer, the "Ice Meisters" are making ice. There's a bit of twist in making the ice for Vancouver as it has a milder and wet climate unlike those dry climates found the Alps where the Winter Games are often held. Check out this NBC Olympics article: Vancouver Venues On Track; Ice Makers Weary of Rain. It reminds me of skating in humid Kentucky.

While the US spread the National Championships over two weekends, our northern neighbors wrapped up their championship this weekend and have named their Olympic Team. No real surprises there with Patrick Chan, Joannie Rochette and Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir leading the way.

A New Storyline Begins, But Is It Wise?

Monday I read several "tweets" from some of the competitive skaters I follow that involved either packing for Tokyo or traveling to Tokyo for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. Tweets from Meryl Davis, Charlie White, Joannie Rochette, Johnny Weir, Jeremy Abbott and Ashley Wagner. I liked Meryl's tweet, "It seems fitting that we're leaving for the land of the rising sun around dawn..."

The Grand Prix Series consists of 6 competitions across 3 continents that take place October through November for senior level skaters. Competitors earn points for their placements in the series. Winners of the event earn 12 points and go home with a snazzy gold medal, second place finishers earn 9 points and so on. The top six in the point standings after the 6 competitions end go on to the Grand Prix Final.

Skaters are selected to compete at the various competitions by their national governing body of the sport. (e.g., the USFSA in the States, Skate Canada in Canada, etc.). Competitors are allowed to compete in 2 of the six events where they earn points. Typically, winning a Grand Prix event gets you into the Final. The other competitors who make it are consistent in placing in the top three in their events.
 
The Final is the cream of the crop in the fall skating season. Performances and placements here are generally a good precursor to the World Championship standings. In an Olympic season, it's an excellent chance to make a statement that you're medal worthy. Plus, by reviewing the judges' marks and how skaters stack up against the narrow field, gives each skater exceptional feedback on what needs to be tweaked before the big championships later in the winter. Especially for those Olympics.
 
It would seem that all skaters would be honored to make it to the Grand Prix Final and want to skate their best. Recent seasons have shown a lot of skaters skipping the stay home and practice.Well, those skaters aren't completely "skipping" there is usually an injury involved. However, several blogs and message boards have been lit up this past week if the injuries are for real. Regardless, the big story leading into the Final is who's not here.

Brian Joubert experienced an awkward landing on a triple lutz last week. He ended up cutting his right foot with this blade. It so bad, he needed surgery to repair a ligament! According to his coach, the surgery went well and a good prognosis is expected. Difficult set back not only effecting the Final, but going into the French nationals and possibly Europeans. 

The ice dancing event would have been a great match up of North American ice dancers, Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto and Meryl Davis & Charlie White represent the US. While Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir sing "O Canada." Ice dance has been a sport dominated by former Soviet countries. Over the past decade that domination is swinging to North America in part by former Soviet coaches who have relocated to the North America. Amazingly, all three of the teams making the Final have been coached by Igor Sphilband at one point in their careers. Each team won all of their Grand Prix events. None of the teams actually had a head to head match up through out the season.

Belbin & Agosto had to withdraw due to Tanith having an impacted wisdom tooth that got infected. I had once of those...ouch! My whole right side of my head from my temple to just below the jaw would throb in the days leading up to the extraction. I feel for her, but I wonder a little about the doctor's orders to stay off the ice for a week. Hopefully, she'll get the time to rejuvenate and then take advantage of not having to travel and compete in Tokyo. Belbin & Agosto's scores were lower in both their Grand Prix wins to the scores of both Virture & Moir and Davis & White.

Finally, there are several players not attending the Final simply because they didn't either didn't compete in more than one event or simply skipped the Grand Prix. Evgeny Plushenko only competed in Rostelecom Cup and neither Sasha Cohen or Stephane Lambiel competed. They may be a factor in Olympic placements.

The streaming times for the Final start Thursday, I think I'll be able to watch a bit over coffee.

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!