All That Skating

The 2010-11 figure skating season doesn't start proper for another 3 weeks, but most of the stars from Vancouver are busy this weekend with 4 major shows/competitions taking place.

First -3 of the 4 Vancouver olympic champions can be seen at the Staples Centre for Queen Yu-Na's All That Skate LA.

Yu-Na's first major show in North America and Michelle Kwan's first time performing for a home crowd since 2006. There is no doubting Yu-Na is an international star - but she may not be the biggest star in LA. The full cast includes.

Kim Yu-Na
Michelle Kwan
Ashley Wagner
Patrick Chan
Stéphane Lambiel
Johnny Weir
Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo
Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy
Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir
Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto

Aunt Joyce has linked to videos from the show here.

Also State-side, the Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular is taking place in Texas. The cast for this is somewhat more limited (as many skaters are in Yu-Na's show and many gymnasts are busy training for worlds) but includes Evan Lysacek, Nastia Liukin, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, among others.

On the other side of the world. The Japan Open was taking place with Team Japan taking the honours (barely) over a very strong looking Team North America. Joannie Rochette put in the best Ladies performance and Adam Rippon topped the men. Mao Asada debuted her new free skate which had some lovely qualities but the jumps aren't all there yet.


Videos for many of the Japan Open skaters can be found online already - follow these links to youtube.
Joannie Rochette, Miki Ando, Mao Asada, Daisuke Takahashi
Adam Rippon, Cynthia Phaneuf, Jeffrey Buttle, Evgeni Plushenko, Takahito Kozuka

And Finally, the JGP Great Britain is wrapping up. The medallists were: -

Ladies
Adelina Sotnikova (RUS - 166.70)
Yasmin Siraz (USA - 161.75)
Yuki Nishino (JPN - 135.58)

Men
Joshua Farris (USA - 187.74)
Zhan Bush (RUS - 172.80)
Liam Firus (CAN - 166.38)

Pairs
Ksenia Stolbova/ Fedor Klimpov (RUS - 151.64)
Narumi Takahashi/ Mervin Tran (JPN - 144-69)
Natasha Purich/ Raymond Schulz (CAN - 126.98)

Dance
Ksenia Monko/Kirill Khaliavin (RUS - 155.04)
Victoris Sinitsina/ Ruslan Zhiganshin (RUS - 133.86)
Nicole Orford/ Thomas Williams (CAN - 133.66)