Skating Updates

Icenetwork spoke to Javier Fernandez about some of his plans for next season, skating's growing popularity in his home country, and his Pirates of the Caribbean program.

Nathan Chen won the 3A award (which in all reality, has nothing to do with triple axels. =P ). He plans to use the $1,000 prize to train with Rafael Arutunian this summer. 

Caydee Denney and John Coughlin announced their partnership today. 

A couple of articles on Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov's coaching change to Morozov from Alexander Zhulin (use google translate).

Ryan Bradley talks about his plans and his expectations for the U.S. men next season. 

 Joannie Rochette has enjoyed being away from competition this past season.

Ksenia Makarova, Johnny Weir, and some others are skating in a cancer benefit.

Madison and Keiffer Hubbell have announced the end of their partnership. Madison will compete with Zach Donohue next season while Keiffer is reportedly considering his options.

Skating Updates

  
Adam Rippon talks about his coaching situation and his attempts at quads toes and lutzes.

Phil Hersh also wrote about Adam and Brian Orser's split.

David Raith voices his opinion on the team event for Sochi.

An article on Canada's Nam Nguyen.

Icenetwork article on Shawn Sawyer's retirement - in addition to skating in shows, he hopes to become a choreographer.

Johnny Weir collaborated with Japanese fashion designer Tadashi Shoji to raise money for Japan disaster relief.

Skating Updates

Nobunari & Daisuke, via Nobu's twitter

Nobunari Oda won Winter Universiade with a total of 223.15. Sergei Voronov finished 2nd with 204.54, while Daisuke Murakami claimed bronze with 202.83. Nobunari did not attempt a quad in either program and only performed one triple axel in the freeskate.
Short Program Results
Protocols
Freeskate Results
Protocols

 Johnny Weir is claiming to be considering a comeback next season. He mentions his disappointment with Patrick Chan winning Grand Prixs with multiple falls and Vancouver. He also talks about his book and being congratulated on being Olympic Champion.

 An interview with Florent Amodio about his Europeans win. He will be working on his quad in hopes of having it ready for Tokyo.

Article on 2011 U.S. bronze medalist and World team member Ross Miner.He discusses his injury last season, his disappointment with his Grand Prix showings, and Nationals (of course!).

30 Days of Skating - Day 28: Favorite & least favorite costume

While I've seen plenty of insanely bad costumes over my years of watching skating, there is one costume that has been seared in my brain. I remember seeing this Emanuel Sandhu costume one season (which season it was, I can't recall) and watching him do that much hated A-frame spin. Word to the wise: banana colored spandex and A-Frame spins are never a good combo.

On the other end of the spectrum, here's a handful of my favorite skating costumes (though I'm sure I'm forgetting some others).

Johnny Weir: "Otonal" costume, '04 -'05

Daisuke Takahashi: "Eye" costume (2nd or 3rd costume), '09-'10

Michelle Kwan: "The Feeling Begins" costume, '02-'03

Sasha Cohen: "Romeo & Juliet" costume (2nd version), '05-'06

What are your favorite costumes? Comment with a link to a picture of it or a video of the skater performing in it!

Skating Updates

Ryan Bradley talked to Universal Sports about the heartbreak of missing out on the Olympics by one placement and what is inspiring him to compete at Nationals this season. I wish him all the best at Nationals!

Sarah and Drew also spoke to Ryan about his comeback and to Rachael Flatt about her debutante ball that she attended with Patrick Chan as one of her escorts. They also spoke to several other skaters about their New Years Resolutions.

Christina Gao was interviewed and talks about training with Adam Rippon, her goals, and the Junior Grand Prix.

Johnny Weir is officially coming out in his autobiography "Welcome to My World" (which hits stores this Tuesday) and in the excerpt that is in the latest issue of People magazine .

 NTV apologized for filming Yu-Na Kim without permission, though still maintains that the footage they shot was shot in a public rink and wasn't filmed secretly with hidden cameras.

Universal Sports talks about two time Russian champion Adelina Sotnikova and this year's fourth place finisher at Russian Nationals, Julia Lipnitskaya.

Evan Lysacek will be skating in the exhibition at U.S. Nationals and filming his exhibition program for the RISE movie.

The starting orders for Canadian Nationals are online now and reveal that Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir plan to compete there.

Jeremy Ten will not be competing at Canadian Nationals, as he had surgery on a chronic foot injury. I for one am definitely wishing him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him skate pain free in the future.

Lastly, the Stars on Ice tour is going to Japan. It has the skaters that are on  the Canadian and American tours this year as well as Takahiko Kozuka, Shizuka Arakawa, Daisuke Takahashi, Miki Ando, and a few others on select dates. If only the American tour had this kind of a lineup!

30 Days of Skating - Day 21: Team Johnny or Team Evan?

Warning: This will probably unleash my inner kraken.

Team Johnny. As I've mentioned a couple of times, I have been a Johnny Weir fan for a very, very long time.  And actually, I was a fan of Evan Lysacek too until the 06' - '07 season. At that time, Evan's skating lost the sense of fun it had and began to bore me, and things he'd say in interviews began to irk me, especially his need to be the "masculine" skater and whatnot. Of course, taking digs at Johnny, who happened to be my absolute favorite, certainly added fuel the fire.

I also became annoyed with Evan's use of skating music war horses - I mean, every skater uses some common ones at some point, but starting in the '05 - '06 season, he went to town with it,  using Carmen (for two seasons), The Feeling Begins, Tosca, The Firebird, Bolero, Rhapsody in Blue, and Scheherazade.

Then of course, the cat fighting eventually began and while Johnny certainly did play his part in it, I tend to think that it made Evan come off worse. Despite that though, I do have to give Evan credit for being determined and realizing his goals, even if I still can't reconcile myself with the fact that he is an Olympic gold medalist (I never, ever really even considered that happening for some reason). Johnny accomplished a lot less competitively, which will probably be a source of frustration to me for a long, long time. I get the feeling that Johnny is this generation's Christopher Bowman, in a way. As beautiful as his skating is and as ridiculously talented as he was, he just wasn't as dedicated as most of his competitors. I mean, do you honestly see Johnny ever putting in all the work that Evgeni Plushenko put in for his comeback?

As much as I love Johnny, he seems to be becoming more of a gimmick than anything else and I fear that he is making figure skating look like a joke not just with his off ice projects, but even with his latest on ice endeavors (i.e. His last performance on Skating With the Stars... with a birdcage.). 

30 Days of Skating - Day 11: Top 5 Favorite Male Figure Skaters

Decisions, decisions... I could probably list ten or fifteen favorite male skaters! I'll try for a top five though, and maybe some honorable mentions, so that I don't fully exclude some that I really like, but that don't quite make the top five. The top five are....

Daisuke Takahashi: If you've read more than one or two posts on this blog, I'm sure you saw this one coming from a mile away. :P What can I say? Daisuke has gorgeous jumps, amazing footwork, very nice basics, and really skates with passion. I first noticed him when he skated at the Paris Grand Prix at least 5 years ago, but not for the reason you'd think; He was having a rather rough free program, even having a wipeout during footwork or something, and I actually heard some people in the crowd laughing, which really made me feel badly for him. After a somewhat disappointing Olympic debut, Dai really amazed me at 2007 Worlds, where he claimed silver after a very inspiring freeskate. He's been a favorite ever since. (Also, may I say; Who's laughing now? ;) )

Johnny Weir: Yeah... I know. The last few seasons haven't been Johnny's best, for many reasons, but he still holds a special place in my heart. I first saw him when I was 11,  when he skated to second place in the short program at 2003 Nationals, but injured himself in the freeskate and consequently had to withdraw. Like Daisuke, I felt terrible for him, but one day when I was about to leave the house, I found Eastern Sectionals on tv just in time to see Johnny on the ice. I was really happy that he came back after the "Dallas Disaster", and was thrilled when he not only made Nationals, but won it with a flawless freeskate. After that, Johnny did have a couple more excellent seasons, and of course some that weren't so great, but he has left me with some magical memories and performances to look back on, along with frustration that he never really reached his full potential.

Jeffrey Buttle: I don't remember thinking anything in particular about Jeffrey, until the 2006 Olympics, where he won the bronze after falling twice in the free, which really didn't sit well with me with Johnny placing behind him with no falls, and whatnot. Now that emotions aren't so high (I wanted a medal for Johnny SO badly!), and I've watched the performances again, I actually can see why Jeff placed ahead of him and why, despite usually making at least a couple of errors, Jeff has so many medals. He really does skate beautifully and has a magic that was rarely tarnished, even when there where technical problems. Thankfully, I did learn to appreciate his skating a couple of years before his retirement, and I was so thrilled when he finally put a clean competition together and won a World title. He really did deserve it, and I have to say, I still miss his presence on the competitive circuit.

Stephane Lambiel: I do remember seeing Stephane win his first World title on tv in 2005 and thinking he did well, but he didn't quite capture my attention at that point in time. Like Jeffrey, I didn't understand his placement at the Olympics at first, with he not even attempting any triple axels. Again though, after some time passed and I rewatched the competition, I really enjoyed Stephane a lot! His musicality, his step sequences, and spins are just wonderful. He paid/pays so much attention to the artistry of the program, I still go back and watch competitions where he'd had technical trouble because the actual performance was still fantastic. Unfortunately, this past Olympic Games were the one exception that I can recall where the life was sucked out of the performances. Even so, as a whole, his skating is pure, lovely, and entertaining, and I will miss seeing him compete.

Adam Rippon: I first heard about Adam right after he won his junior National title. Many people that mentioned him were saying how his style was similar to Johnny Weir's... so I decided to check him out once junior World's videos were up on icenetwork. I was very impressed by his skating; even without a triple axel, he could break the 200 mark! As time has gone by, I definitely think Adam has continued to improve, technically and artistically. He's very comfortable to watch; usually he inspires a sense of confidence that the jumps are going to get done, unlike many skaters. I think that he is becoming an ideal all around skater, as he seems to have few weaknesses. One of the things that stands out most about him for me, is the sense of joy in his skating. I love the freedom and passion in it. It is something that so often gets lost in the grind of competition,so I love seeing it in him; it is incredibly refreshing. I think Adam has what it takes to be at the top of the sport, and I am really looking forward to seeing him compete over the next few years.

Honorable Mentions: Takahiko Kozuka, Jeremy Abbott, Florent Amodio, and Nobunari Oda.

30 Days of Skating - Day 10: Last competition/show you attended

Unfortunately, I have never been to an elite level skating competition, but the last skating show I went to was Kimmie's Angels on Ice on August 25th, 2007. I was extremely fortunate enough to have that show close enough for me to go to, and managed to get VIP tickets, allowing me to see the practice before the show and go to a special dinner, etc. It was a really great experience, and the best parts were definitely being able to be so close to the ice and being able to meet some of my favorite skaters, including Jeffrey Buttle and Johnny Weir. I was really impressed by the skating in general - Jeffrey Buttle left me in awe with his "Go the Distance" program! Even some of the skaters I wasn't as excited to see were really impressive in person, like Steven Cousins and Brooke Castille and Benjamin Okolski. I hope that someone can get a skating tour similar to this running again, now that Champions on Ice is gone. I'd love to see more live skating like that!

Skating updates

It appears that Johnny Weir is making more serious attempts to get his jumps back, after losing some of them due to lack of training following the Olympics.

Triple Axel and triple Axel-triple toe (cheated triple toe)

The axels look clean to me =)!I'm so glad to see that's he's buckled down enough to get his triple axel back. Seeing him do double and triple toes in All That Skate LA was really disheartening. Of course, by no means do I think this means that Johnny is going to compete again, but it'd be great for him to have his normal triples for shows at least.

Also, it appears there are two open slots in the men's competition for Trophee Eric Bompard next week, due to withdrawals by Michal Brezina and Sergei Voronov. Still no word on who will be replacing them, but it seems a recent Grand Prix bronze medalist is certainly willing to go if asked. ;)

30 Days of Skating: Day 7 - Favorite Men's Program

That is extremely difficult for me to narrow down to just one... so I'm going to do a handful! :P



Just gorgeous. A moment when Daisuke proved he has what it takes to take on the world. What makes this amazing skate even more special is that he pulled it off at home, under immense pressure.



I was so ecstatic to see Johnny skate so perfectly and win his first national title after what had happened the year prior. If only he'd skated like that more the last few years.



Seeing Jeffrey finally put together two clean programs in a single competition was wonderful, and I think it is so great that such a lovely skater finally won a World title. I still miss him.



His second national title in a row, and an beautiful program to boot.



Daisuke Takahashi... fabulous! Following his Olympic bronze medal win, his performance at Worlds a month later gave him his long overdue World title. The fact that Daisuke managed to pull this and a Olympic medal off less than a year after he started jumping again (he was off the ice for several months due to a serious injury and missed the entire 08-09 season.)is absolutely astounding. I'm incredibly proud of him, and did I mention he attempt a quad flip?!? ;)

30 Days of Skating - Day 3: Favorite skating spectatorship moment

Going to Champions on Ice and Kimmie's Angels on Ice in my hometown was really nice, especially getting to meet skaters like Johnny Weir and Jeffrey Buttle, and their skating is exquisite live.

As for competitive spectatorship, I've never gotten to go to a figure skating competition that my sister or I weren't competing in, so these will be based on video spectatorship only.( And of course, I really can't pick only one moment.)

• Johnny Weir winning his 2004 and 2005 National titles
• Daisuke Takahashi winning World silver and then dominating most of the following season.
•  Daisuke Takahashi coming back after a career threatening injury to win the 2010 Olympic bronze medal AND the World title the following month.
• Jeffrey Buttle putting all the puzzle pieces together at 2008 Worlds to win his World title. 
• Almost everytime Michelle Kwan took to competitive ice.