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)

All That Skate Summer

Yu-Na's ice show is taking place in Korea later today. In an interview David Wilson said Yu-Na had been preparing for this almost like an international competition.

Rehearsals seem to have been going well and I'm sure with the cast of big names and Yu-Na fever still raging in Korea- photos and videos will be swamping the internet instantly.

See more rehearsal pictures here


With Mao having her own show, THE ICE, in Nagoya this weekend - maybe 'international competition' was right!

Skating News and Tweets

Joannie Rochette has been busy - this week she attended the G20 ceremonies as a guest and sat next to Michelle Obama for lunch. She also was at the Canadian Grand Prix and will be a special guest for the official Canada day celebrations in Ottawa on Thursday. Oh and on top of all that she was nominated for an ESPY award for 'best moment'. I hope she wins, she deserves it.
Read more here


Evgeni Plushenko will not be in the Grand Prix this season or in the 2014 olympics. He has lost his ISU eligibility by competing in professional ice shows. Read it here.

Mao Asada has a refreshing new exhibition at Dreams on Ice. The kind of beautiful programme you can just sit back and enjoy. She has become an elegant young woman. Also Daisuke Takahashi unveiled his new exhibition choreographed by Stephane Lambiel.


Adam Rippon will skate to Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet for his SP and Rachmaninov Piano Concerto number 2 for his LP. He was interviewed by Icenetwork.

Changes to jump values under the new ISU rules.
The value of quad toe was raised to 10.3 (from 9.8), tripe Axel to 8.5 (from 8.2). Base value of double Axel lowered to 3.3 (from 3.5).
Jump under-rotated by 1/4 to 1/2 revolution gets 70% of base value. Jump under-rotated by more than 1/2 gets downgraded to next lower jump.

Ilderton, ON honoured its olympic champions, Tessa and Scott.


Scott Hamilton is recovering well after his surgery. He tweeted this
Thank you, everyone, for your love, support & prayers during my recent brain surgery! You lifted me up & gave me strength to get through it!

Denis Ten tweeted

I need new feet for my new skates. Can anybody share them with me?

News on Mao and Yu-Na

Olympic silver medallist, Mao Asada headed to Korea this week for Medalist on ice in Seoul. Interestingly she did not face off against Yu-Na Kim, however other participants included Evan Lysacek, Evgeni Plushenko, Shen and Zhao, Miki Ando, Alexei Yagudin and Virtue and Moir. A star-studded cast to make up for the absense of the Korean Superstar.

After practice on Friday, Asada told reporters, "Figure skating got more attention because of the rivalry between Kim Yu-na and me. I hope the momentum carries on with more such 'good' rivalry."

Turning to changes to the scoring system by the International Skating Union that have already been dubbed the "Asada rules," the skater said there is no truth in the claim that they work in her favor. At the official press conference at Hyundai Card headquarters in Seoul, Asada said, "It's good that the ISU raised the base value of certain jumps. But that in itself isn't to my advantage. What's important is that I nail the triple axels in the competition. If I don't, the rules don't matter at all."

The ISU in early May announced new rules for its figure skating scoring system, which included increasing the base value of technically more demanding jumps while decreasing it for easier jumps. Kim Yu-na expressed dissatisfaction at the change by saying, "I don't understand why they tried to change the rules in such a way."
(Adapted from an article in The Chosen Ilbo)

Meanwhile. Yu-Na has taken a vacation in Tobermory, Canada with her fellow Korean skater Min-Jung Kwak who now trains with her in Toronto. Yu-Na is due to skate in Korea for 'All That Skate Summer', July 23-25. The show is organised by All That Sports, The managing agency Yu-Na and her mother sat up themselves. She too will attract big names including Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen.

Yu-Na posted this about her vacation.

“I feel like I haven’t been on a vacation like this since I was young. I always talked about how I wanted to go on a vacation.. Although all people are like that k k k So far, I think I have been so immersed in one thing that I never had any time.. Now, all the things I’ve wanted to do.. even the minor things… I want to do each and every one of them!!!

Last weekend, I left for my last break before beginning my summer training… I was so happy for the 2 nights and 3 days. I was happy.. I was happy… The realization that the next day is Monday……. I couldn’t speak….”

I think the girl deserves a well-earned break!

Skating News

Grand Prix assignments can be found here :-

Ladies Men Pairs Dance

Those Noticeable by their presence-

• Yu-Na Kim is to compete in China and Russia- probably not her first choice of venues as neither is very near to Toronto. Great to see her though
• Mirai Nagasu has a second chance to prove herself in China, she'll also face Mao in Japan.
  
• Fumie Suguri - puts off retirement- again!
• Johnny Weir - still plans to compete, maybe?
  
• Evgeni Plushenko - is down for Cup of Russia, I'll be amazed if he turns up.
  
• Pang and Tong - local gigs in Japan and China
• Kavaguti and Smirnov- I'd love to see them stick around until Sochi
• Virtue and Moir, Davis and White- Yipee

Those Noticeable by their absense-

• Evan Lysacek
• Joannie Rochette
  Neither have 'retired' but both seem to be taking a break to make their minds up

Other News
Not only have the ISU got rid of compulsories, They've ditched spirals from the ladies short programme :-(

Mao Asada has picked her new music (SP Tango by Alfred Schnittke, LP Liebesträume by Franz Liszt) and also picked a new jump coach - Hiroshi Nagakubo, Aikiko Suzuki's coach. Yet to hear if she will pick a new main coach as well. We had such high hopes when she signed up witht the legend Tarasova but it didn't really work out. I heard a rumour months ago she might ask Shizuka Arakawa. That would be cool, but unlikely.

USA's Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker have split. They impressed everyone by becoming Junior World and Senior US champions in quick succession, but then failed to go higher and make the olympics. Keauna is taking a year off to focus on school. Rockne is looking for a new partner.

Kimmie Meissner is training (and tweeting) again. She hasn't committed to competing this year though. I'd love to see it.

No news yet on that 'other retirement' SarahandDrew mentioned on Twitter.

Skate Canada has a new logo - oooooh

Mixed emotions on the Vancouver Podium

The Olympics were only 4 months ago but over the weekend the assignments came out for this seasons international competitions. (If interested - view them here) Both the ladies champion and silver medallist are planning to get back on the ice again this autumn, which is great for the sport as I'm sure they have more to give.

Vancouver Medallists - looking back.

Gold for her country

Until a few years ago, South Korea was known for some great speed skaters, but never for figure skating. One talented teenager changed all that - Yu-Na Kim. Within a few years she won every title there is to win and broke every record there was to break in figure skating. In the process she became her country's number one celebrity.

Her coach (and himself a Canadian skating legend), Brian Orser described travelling with Yu-Na as like being with Princess Diana. In Vancouver photographers were hiding in the lockers overnight to to have a shot at getting near the ice to photograph her olympic moment. With all this pressure and the eyes of her country on her, Yu-Na delivered, hammering the competition and winning her country's first olympic medal in skating.

When Only Gold Will Do.

Silver medallist Mao Asada looked in serious need of a hug on the podium. Rather than proud of her achievment she was devistated. 2nd was a loss.



Mao was perhaps cursed with bad luck and a bad birthday. In 2006 she was 87 days too young to compete in the olympics in Turin. In that year at other competitions she beat all 3 of the torino olympic medallists. She may have been the best in the world at 15, but she would have to wait her turn.

Over 4 years she definitely improved and developed, breaking records and winning gold medals in the process. But by the time Vancouver came around most of the world was already counting her out. Her skates in Vancouver were great- but not quite as great as Yu-Na's.

Mao didn't dwell on her disappointment for long. She was back practicing just days after the olympics so that, a month later, she was able to win the world championship gold (Coincidently- in Turin). Then she could smile again.

As good as Gold.

Without doubt the most courageous performance of Vancouver 2010 was that of Canadian Joannie Rochette. Rochette was woken by her father in the olympic village 2 days before her skate to be told her mother had died of a heart attack. Thérèse Rochette was in Vancouver ready to watch her daughter compete- their life's work and dream.

In honour of her Mother, Joannie bravely decided to go ahead and compete. She kept it together and skated personal best scores in both programs to win a bronze medal, for herself, her mother and for Canada. The Canadian team honoured her for her bravery and Joannie carried the Canadian flag at the closing ceremony.



So anyway, there was no particular reason for me to write this little summary, and no particular reason for you to read it. But if you have - thanks and I hope you enjoyed it! Hilights of the figure skating from vancouver (as well as all the sports) can be found here.