Skating Updates

  Shawn Sawyer has announced his retirement from competition. He will be missed. Shawn does plan to keep skating in shows though, so keep an eye out for shows in your area, just in case. ;) 

 Adam Rippon has left Brian Orser and will train with Ghislain Briand, whom has been a part of his coaching team for a couple of years. Adam will continue training at the Cricket Club in Toronto.

An article on Sean Rabbitt's love for Japan and him organizing Skaters Care.
The Gardena Spring Trophy has begun. Here's an article on the U.S. team participating.

Universal Sports chatted with Tanith Belbin on Skype.

Peter Oppegard has joined Yu-Na Kim in Korea to continue her training for Worlds.

P.S. None of the news from today are April Fool's jokes, as far as I know. If any are, I'll update this and remove it or make a note about it, haha. I might add more articles if more come in today, so please check back for updates!

Skating Updates

Marina Zoueva & Carol Lane talk about waiting for Worlds

A translation of the French Federation's offer to give Japan next year's Worlds

Yu-Na Kim gave a sneak peek of her new short program


& will make a pitch for Korea's bid for the 2018 Olympics

All That Skate Korea announcement

 Finally and most importantly, Worlds has been moved to Russia and will take place April 24th - May 1st!


The ISU announcement

Phil Hersh's take on it - includes snippets with Meryl Davis 

Universal Sports spoke to Ross Miner about Worlds' relocation . Apparently the rink in Sendai, Japan, is gone, which is where World Junior Champion and 2011 Four Continents Silver Medalist Yuzuru Hanyu trains if I'm not mistaken. :-/

They also spoke to Rachael Flatt, Mark Ladwig, Michal Brezina, & Meryl Davis 

Patrick Chan article

Skating Updates

Well, the ISU President has now stated the obvious -  Worlds will not be held in Japan (The Japan Skating Federation handed it back over, acknowledging they can't hold it at this time), which thankfully means no Worlds in October. World Team Trophy will now be moved to April of 2012, dates to be determined ( not that anyone really cares about that event at this point). The ISU is officially taking bids for new locations for Worlds on Tuesday, deciding Wednesday or Thursday, and announcing their decision on Friday.

Here's more of the latest on Worlds & skaters.

Worlds trying to find new site

More info from Phil Hersh

Hersh Spoke to the ISU President again

Universal sports theorizes on whether Yu-Na Kim will compete at a rescheduled Worlds

Denver Post article on U.S. Worlds Bids

Another Hersh article

If more articles come today, I'll likely edit them in, so be sure to check back for the latest!

Skating Updates

I'll likely edit more news into this if much more is announced today, so be sure to check back. =)

Yu-Na Kim is going back to Korea 

Alissa Czisny shares her opinion with Phil Hersh

Moving Worlds being considered, waiting until Monday

Patrick Chan article with an, er, interesting quote.  

California skating club to host a charity event for Japanese earthquake relief

An updated Phil Hersh article

Skating Updates

Sorry about the lateness of some of this news - I've been wrapped up the the whole Worlds drama.

There was a lot of break ups for teams announced recently - Zhang & Toth, Bereswill & Young, and perhaps most surprisingly, Dube & Davison.

Florent Amodio was in Japan during the earthquake, but is now back in France, as the French federation was quite concerned over the nuclear problems.

Sarah & Drew spoke to Mirai Nagasu

Evan Lysacek won the Sullivan Award.

Faiella & Scali have officially retired.

Various articles on Worlds (semi chronological order)

Shibutani's initial thoughts

Davis & White's thoughts


Daisuke Takahashi & Mao Asada speak about the situations

Ryan Bradley's thoughts

Still no decision by the ISU & discussion of Worlds possibly being in OCTOBER

American coaches give their thoughts on the possibility of Worlds in October


ISU President Cinquata spoke to Phil Hersh (contradicting at least one earlier statement)

Translation of an article on Florent Amodio's thoughts

French Federations thoughts
 
Golden Skate gathered the thoughts of some skaters about Worlds & Japan.

Sarah and Drew blog also talking to skaters about the tragedy & Worlds.

The U.S., Sweden, & Russia have offered to host Worlds now also, in addition to Switzerland & Italy offering several days ago.

Worlds decision to come Friday or Monday

Worlds Situation Update

Three options for the world championship the first is to cancel them.

Cinquanta, the ISU president, has announced that the figure skating tournament that should have taken place in Tokyo next week, will either be cancelled or postponed to next October: “At the moment respect for the Japanese people prevails”

MILAN, 15 March 2011 – “The respect for the Japanese people ahead of everything.” This will be the main focus of the ISU as it decides what will be of the 2011 figure skating World Championships that were scheduled to take place in Tokyo next week, but that were officially cancelled by the federation on Monday given the situation. What now appears to be certain, and that dismisses the suggestions emerged in the latest hours, is that the competition will not take place in the coming weeks at a different venue – said the Milan-born Ottavio Cinquanta, president of the international federation – it wouldn’t be correct towards a country that has been struck by such a tragedy and towards the Japanese federation, which was awarded the right to stage the competition. Furthermore, as far as the logistics are concerned, it would be very difficult given the time constraints. Staging a World Championship is no easy task.

THREE OPTIONS — There are three possibilities, as Cinquanta explained: “Our council will consider the situation very carefully. Presumably though, we will opt for the complete cancellation, or a postponement to October. In Tokyo, if the authorities give us the go ahead, or in a city in a different country, and in that eventuality there would be the promise to award Japan with an edition in the future. As soon as possible we will make a statement to make our decision official.”

the future — At the moment, the 2012 edition of the competition has been awarded to France (Nice) and the 2013 one to Canada (London, Ontario). It should also be kept in consideration that the first stage of the next Senior Grand Prix (Skate Canada) is scheduled to take place from 21 to 23 October; and that the only edition of a World Championship to be cancelled was in 1961, when the plane that carried the American team crashed during its landing in Brussels: 72 people died, of which 34 were part of the US team.

Andrea Buongiovanni
Source