Brian's gang - an update

Previously I wrote a blog post about Brian Orser's growing camp of talented skaters. They were a busy lot this past weekend, travelling to 3 different countries to skate.

Yu-Na Kim and Min-Jung Kwak headed home to Korea to wow the crowds in Yu-Na's show All That Skate Summer. The event was a huge hit (obviously). Maistro David Wilson went with them to choreograph the show. Min-Jung makes me smile and I hope she does well on the senior Grand Prix circuit this year. Without Yu-Na competing - all the korean eyes and camera lenses will be focussed on her.

Not that she seems to mind. On her Cyworld page (a kind of korean facebook) are hundreds of photos of her goofing around- like this one. I think she borrowed (or made off with) this medal from one of the Korean speed skaters.

Adam Rippon spent his weekend performing in Japan with Mao Asada's show THE ICE. As usual for Japan, the skaters were showered with gifts from the skating fans. Adam posted on Twitter. "Home from japan! Thanks to all the fans who made it such a wonderful trip:) xoxoxo" and also posted a photo of himself and World Champ Jeffrey Buttle.


Meanwhile, Brian Orser was in the US with 2 of his other charges, Christina Gao and Yea Ji Yun competed at Skate Detroit. Christina debuted 2 new programmes and a new triple flip-triple toe combination. She won the senior event with a very respectable score 0f 159.07. Christina will skate on the Junior Grand Prix this year and will be one of the favourites. Also with her growing reputation and arsenal of jumps will definitely be in the mix for a medal at the US nationals this year.

Korean Junior Champ Yea-Ji Yun finished 5th in the Juniors here, measuring herself against US and International skaters is a great way for her to develop and we may see her too on the junior circuit this year.