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!

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.