So Brian Boitano has made the finalist list for the 2008 USOC Hall of Fame class! You can read his Olympic Bio below as well as vote for Brian by clicking the button that follows.
Brian Boitano is a two-time World Champion figure skater (1986 and 1988) and a four-time United States National Champion. In 1988, during the battle of the Brians at the Olympic Games in Calgary, Boitano earned an Olympic gold medal. Boitano also won six World Professional Championship titles. Boitano’s place on the ice is solidified by his legacy as the first American skater to land a triple axel, the ‘Tano triple lutz, and the record nine perfect marks of 6.0 earned at the U.S. Championships.
Boitano starred in multiple touring ice shows and won an Emmy for his performance in “Carmen on Ice.” In 1992, Boitano skated with Dorothy Hammill at the Superbowl XXVI half time performance, “Winter Magic.” In 1994, Boitano returned to amateur status to skate at the 1994 Olympic Games at Lillehammer, where he placed sixth. Boitano was elected to the World and U.S. Figure Skating Halls of Fame in 1996. As a professional, Boitano toured 11 seasons with John Hancock’s Champions on Ice Tour. He currently owns his own skating production company, White Canvas Productions, where he serves as Artistic Director.
Tomorrow Kimmie Meissner takes to the ice for her first public performance since her meltdown at Nationals in St. Paul.
The University of Delaware will hold a special exhibition on Saturday afternoon, March 1, featuring some of the figure skaters that will compete in the 2008 World Championships scheduled March 17-23 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The event is important for Meissner who must show she is capable of a good skate, even if it isn't a competition. Many people will be looking to see if she has made substantitve improvements while working with Callaghan and Eldredge and if she looks prepared for Worlds.
Tomorrow is a big day for Kimmie Meissner no matter how you slice it.
The movie tagline..."Nothing says lovin' like another unlikely pair falling for each other on the ice."
Wow...really? I'm really hoping the "Cutting Edge" series comes to an end soon. The first one...okay. The second one...terrible...and for the third installment we rehash the same plot from the previous movies.
Maybe I'm crazy but I think this kid could be the next big thing! I was completely impressed with him at U.S. Nationals where he won Gold as a Junior. He is, at this moment, enjoying the lead at the 2008 Junior World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria and he was the 2007 Junior Grand Prix Champion. What a talent!
Adam Rippon has shown that he really has what it takes to be a champion. I've always kept tabs on the junior skaters but at this years nationals I really took a detailed look at them, especially the men, and was incredibly impressed. Adam Rippon leads an extremely talented field of U.S. men in Bulgaria, all three in the top six, and I can tell you our future of U.S. men (Adam Rippon included!) looks very bright.
Adam, good luck in the free skate and in your future endeavours! I can't help but get the feeling that this guy is trying to make his time now...and what better time with the Olympics less than two years away!
UPDATE: And has fate would have it...Adam Rippon has won the Junior World Title!
First figure skater to get a crack at the "In Their Words" series on the 2010 Vancouver Site. See the whole post below:
In Their Words is a celebration of the two-year countdown to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. This 17-part series is comprised of personal stories written by Olympians and leaders with a passion for the Games. Visit vancouver2010.com every day from February 12 to 28 for a fresh story of inspiration, triumph and hope.
Those Five Rings by Joannie Rochette
I started figure skating when I was a young child who could barely walk on the ice. From day one I enjoyed sports, but I quickly fell in love with figure skating after my first time on the ice.
In the beginning, competing was my favourite aspect of the sport. I wanted to win, I liked to win. I entered many regional championships despite not being favoured to win: I lacked a certain new jump in my arsenal that was the key to success. However, typically, I would often only land that new jump for the first time during practice the week before. Though I often cut it close, I loved the adrenaline of competition, and liked to perform so much that I landed the tough jumps when it counted the most. It’s that passion for performance that led me to win my first provincial championship at age 11, as a pre-novice.
Adrenaline
That same passion for performance led me to win Canadian novice, junior and senior titles. It is that exact same passion that helped me place fifth at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games; I achieved my goal of a top-10 finish. It is my enduring love for performance that pushes me toward 2010.
Speaking of Torino, my discipline of ladies’ free skating was one of the last events held at those Games. I arrived there one week before the Opening Ceremony, so when I started competing with my short program, I had been there for almost three weeks. And for 10 days, I had seen many fellow athletes celebrating the results of their Olympic adventure. I was patiently waiting for my turn to compete, and finally celebrate, too.
Four minutes
You train all your life for Olympic competition, and, in the end, four minutes means everything to you. If you mess up, you have to wait another four years! It is all about delivering at the right time, peaking at the right time. Then, when you’re in front of the noisiest crowd, and all eyes are on you to deliver — it’s important to feel like you gave everything you had.
That is exactly how I felt in Torino. After a ninth-place finish in the short program, I entered the long program with the objective of climbing a bit in the standings. After my name was announced, “Representing Canada, représentant le Canada, Joannie Rochette,” I skated onto the ice to take my starting pose. I saw the rings, those five Olympic rings. I started thinking about where I was, about what was going on. I thought about that little girl who could barely walk on the ice at one time and who was now at the Olympic Winter Games. Then, I woke up. I could not let those emotions take control of the situation.
I ended the night in fifth place, which was amazing! I was “on” that night, the most important night so far in my career. I had the third-best technical score of all the ladies — of all the best ladies competing in figure skating from around the world!
For me, and Canada as a nation, the 2010 Winter Games mean a lot. For many of us, the Games mean pride, accomplishment, challenge and excellence, and hopefully, a fantastic experience highlighted with the very best performances of a generation.
Can he be stopped? That is the question all the top men in figure skating have got to be asking themselves as they head towards the World Championships in Goteborg, Sweden.
His resume this season looks awfully good. Wins at Skate America and NHK Trophy. A very close second place at the Grand Prix Final, but then he started posting big numbers at both the Japanese National Championships and now the Four Continents Cup. You have to think that he is the favorite for a win at Worlds and I don't know that he can be stopped. Who would stop him. Lambiel did defeat him at the grand Prix Final...but then Lambiel doesn't even have a consistent triple axle right now! Lysacek...would need to hit everything in his program and then some. Joubert...is lucky he can skate right now! Weir...not enough technical content in the back-half of his program. Verner....hmmmm? Verner was very close to him at NHK and did beat both Lambiel and Joubert at Europeans so on paper maybe he has the best shot? Maybe not?
Whatever the outcome, the Takahashi star has arrived and it shines bright!
So I'm a big fan of American Idol and last night they kicked off their top 24 contestants with the guys performances last night.
I'm sitting their watching and can't help but play idol-skating look-a-likes! The three that I came up with are pictured below. Danny Noriega doesn't look so much like Johnny Weir but the personalities are dead ringers! David Archuleta reminds me of Patrick Chan and David Hernandez screams Eliot Halverson. Maybe I'm crazy but take a look below.
I love Dancing With the Stars and about flipped out when they announced one of the cast members. The figure skating season is winding down but I'll have a new weekly spot to report on the progress of one very important dancer! Me and some friends were just commenting on how they should get a figure skater on that show and wondering how a figure skater would do in that format.
I was flipping out and going crazy because Kristi Yamaguchi is going to be on Dancing With the Stars...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What should I call my weekly Kristi report? The Yamaguchi Update? Kriti's Dance Pass? Kris Spot? I'll work on that...here is a complete list of what will be I'm sure one of the craziest seasons of DWTS ever:
Just a note...on Dance Center during the Dance Wars telecast, Kenny Wayne called Kristi the early favorite to win the competition! Figure Skating Fans...it is time to mobilize and get our girl another win! Action begins March 17th on ABC.
UPDATE: Kristi Yamaguchi has been paired with Mark Ballas! That's right...he's the one that smashed the dance floor last year with Sabrina Bryan. Kristi's chances of winning just got way better!
The current week-long event will now be stretched to nine days and take place over two weekends. The Championship schedule will look a lot like the schedule skaters have at the Olympics. In non-Olympic years, the event will revert back to it's normal week-long schedule.
All of this is to capitalize on the extra cash that can be obtained from extra attention the event gets in Olympic years. It also gives NBC extra time to push the Olympics which at this point would only be a month away. I can also report that six cities (one we know is Detroit) are bidding on the event and the USFSA will decide at it's May meeting were the event will be. This is tentaively the Championship Event's schedule for 2010:
Jan. 15: pairs short program (afternoon) and men short program (night).
Jan. 16: pairs free skate final (afternoon).
Jan. 17, men free skate final (afternoon).
Jan. 20, dance compulsories (night).
Jan. 21, women's short program (night).
Jan. 22, original dance (night).
Jan. 23, dance free skate (afternoon), women free skate (night).
Next years' World Championships in L.A. are to be our big, shining, new moment where we get to unveil all our new stars that rose to prominence at this years Nationals...problem is, we have to get them there first!
This week, the U.S. ladies finished 6th, 8th, and 11th at the Four Continets Cup. This is our worst finish since the event was created. And even more troublesome, our highest finisher, Katrina Hacker, isn't even on the world team...8th place finisher Wagner and 11th place finisher Liang are.
Combine that with the fact that the third member of our World Team is Kimmie Meissner who finished 7th at Nationals behind all the before mentioned ladies and that spells possible disaster in Sweden.
Nightmare scenario, the U.S. is hosting the World Figure Skating Championships in L.A. in 2009, we have a bucket full of fresh new stars that can challenge the worlds best, and we can't even qualify all of them to the event held in their home country because of a poor showing at the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships. I'm not making this up...this is the scenario that is playing out in front of our eyes.
To the credit of Meissner she is a previous World Champion and we know she has it in her to pull of a great performance but she is going to really have to come through for us in Sweden. If not Kimmie than Ashley who has also proven in the past she can be at her best when the pressure is on. God forbid we rest our hopes on Beatrisa Liang who has a history of crackling under pressure.
Everybody, send good positive energy to Shirley Hughes, Ken Congemi, and Richard Callaghan (the coaches of our U.S. ladies World Team) that they might get these ladies ready for this event and help U.S. Figure Skating avert disaster!
Things wrapped up in South Korea for the Four Continents Cup...some expected results and a few surprises to share with you.
In ladies the clear front runner won easily. Mao Asada posted a score of 193.25, a score of nearly 14 points better than her closest competitor. She received solid GOE scores on all her elements except the lutz which was given a wrong edge takeoff deduction. Both her technical and component scores were leaps ahead of the competetion and without Yu-Na Kim in the competition, it seemed an easy victory for her. Joannie Rochette of Canada punched through to earn the silver medal edging out Miki Ando on the technical score. It appears the reigning World Champion struggled just a touch with her jumps at the beginning of her program. Miki's season has been up and down and hopefully, for her, this is a down before an up in Sweden. Trouble for the U.S. ladies...more on this in another post.
The Ice Dance competition went as expected. Virtue and Moir won, but not easily. The American team of Davis and White pushed them all the way through the competition. Tessa and Scott appear to have an advantage when it comes to the program component score, but Davis and White were about dead even with them technically. These two teams will continue to push one another, probably past 2010 and onward towards 2014. The bronze went to the American team of Navarro and Bommentre who continue to have a ground breaking season. In fact, the Americans were able to go 2-3-4 with Wester and Barantsev placing fourth.
I was slightly shocked to see that Pang and Tong won the pairs competition after the decent sized lead that the Zhangs had opened up after the short program but Pang and Tong were able to put down solid component and technical scores and make up the difference in the free skate. Moving up from fourth to capture the bronze is reigning U.S. bronze medalists Castile and Okolski, however, they still lack side-by-side triple jumps in their free skate. Newly engaged team of Inoue and Baldwin slipped to fourth after struggling with their side-by-side triples and miscue that lead to a poor throw single axel instead of a triple.
In the men's event, Daisuke Takahashi killed it! Now armed with two quads in his free skate, on in combo, and seven triples to boot, I don't know if this guy can be stopped! Besides having a component score that is 4-5 points better than his closest competitior, his technical score was sick, about 20 points better than anyone else! He received positive GOE's on everything except his triple loop and won by over 30 points! Jeffrey Buttle won the silver with what has to be one of his best performances this season despite the fact that he is still struggling a bit with the jumps. He continues to try and reestablish himself as Canada's best (as opposed to Chan who didn't compete here). Evan Lysacek dropped from second after the short to capture the bronze. A fall on the quad and then some lacking technical merit from that point left him with his worst performance of the season...not the direction you wanted to be heading at this critical point in the skating season. Carriere was 4th and Abbott was 5th.
We hold our breath everytime they do the element. It's explosive, it's beautiful, it's perfect, you can't help but love Dan and Hao Zhang's split triple twist. And for that (and the fact that they have a big lead after the Pairs short program at the Four Continents Cup!) they get the Pic of the Week.
We first took notice of this team during a moment of real tragedy. Rewind back to the 2004 Skate America competition in Pittsburgh. Russians Totmianina and Marinin were forced to withdraw from a freak accident due to one of the nastiest slips from a lift I've ever seen. It was in fact the Zhangs that won the competition and made us all shake our heads in wonderment that there was in fact another team from China that could challenge the worlds best.
We can fast forward to the Olympics where their potential was realized with a silver medal (and oddly after a freak fall of their own on throw quad salchow!) and they haven't looked back, medaling at the 2005 and 2006 World Championships, and of course looking very sharp this season. They are the only team this season that has managed to defeat the German team of Savchenko and Szolkowy.
It looks like the Four Continents Cup will be easy sailing for this team barring catastrophe...look for this team to be in the thick of it in Sweden!
I don't usually post whole articles but this is a good one on the Lysacek/Weir Nationals controversy.
Rule change is very clear on how to calculate the scores for elements executed but not clear at all on the calculations for program components.
By Philip Hersh, Special to The LA Times
February 3, 2008
My e-mails tell me that more than a few readers are skeptical of skating officials' explanations in a story about the men's result at the U.S. Championships published Saturday on latimes.com.
Yet those who insist that imprecise language in the rules cannot be the problem, as the skating officials claimed, must be reading a different version of U.S. Figure Skating rule 3435 than the one in the USFS 2007-08 rulebook.
That rule is very clear on how to calculate the scores for elements executed but not clear at all on the calculations for program components, which is at the root of the controversy surrounding whether Evan Lysacek or Johnny Weir should be the winner of the men's competition.
(Lysacek and Weir tied in total score at 244.77 points, with Lysacek winning because he had a higher score in the long program. That score would have been .01 lower -- making Weir the winner -- if the math was done in the way some people think rule 3435 makes clear).
Some e-mailers think the math was purposely done in violation of the rules because the USFS preferred Lysacek as champion.
That would assume that, on the spur of the moment, officials could know the effect of changing the math formula used on the approximately 6 billion numbers that must be considered in the calculation of the scores.
Not only that, but I have received a document used in the International Skating Union accountants school that supports the officials' claim that the correct formula was applied at nationals.
The document shows accountants how to calculate manually the results of a program, giving a hypothetical example of a junior women's free skate.
In that example, this is how the component scores were calculated:
High and low scores were dropped. The rest of the scores were added, then divided by the number of judges. That number was rounded off at that point to two decimal places (in the example given, a 5.6666666 became 5.67, a 5.33333333 became 5.33).
The rounded-off, averaged numbers, or trimmed means, were added. That total then was multiplied by the factor involved.
In the case of Lysacek and Weir, those who think the rule was misinterpreted say the factor should have been applied before the scores were divided by the number of judges, and the number rounded off at that point.
(For the record, that method produces changes in four of Weir's component scores, two that were .01 higher and two that were .01 lower, but does not affect the total. It produces changes in three of Lysacek's scores, two .01 lower and one .01 higher, which is a net loss of .01.)
Sorry to all of you who think I am swallowing an official explanation of a cover-up (one, as I indicated earlier, would have required, even with computers, a group of figure filberts who have been solving Fermat's Theorem in their spare time).
This is my bottom line:
Even if the wrong formula was applied -- and I have yet to see anyone parse Rule 3435 to make it clear that happened -- the only thing that would keep me investigating is proof the formula was not applied the same way to every skater.
Those of you spending all this time and energy on the issue are missing the real problem with the New Judging System: It has led to a free skate (also called the long program, for any non-skating fan who has read this far) with no freedom and stripped the sport of its artistic essence.
No skater now will ever do fancy-free footwork sequences like those of Alexei Yagudin and Philippe Candoloro, footwork that brought crowds to their feet, because the system rewards changing foot positions so frequently the athlete cannot get up a head of steam.
Few skaters do eye-catching moves like Russian split jumps or graceful moves like the Ina Bauer or spread eagle because they take time and earn no points. Most skaters simply race between point-producing elements (even Weir, more of an artist than almost anyone else in the sport these days, had little chance to create any flow while he crammed jumps into the first half of his free skate at nationals).
No one in singles and pairs can game the system enough to do long programs that will be enthralling to watch again and again -- like Kurt Browning's "Bogart'' or Michelle Kwan's "Salome'' or Sale-Pelletier's "Tristan'' or John Curry's interpretation of the score from the ballet, "Don Quixote,'' in which Curry really was a ballet dancer on the ice. The new system has made music almost irrelevant; despite the best efforts of talented choreographers, most skaters would simply do the same elements in the same order, no matter what music were playing.
The physical demands to do all the stuff in the new system are such they reward lithe, small women (girls?) like Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt and Caroline Zhang, who finished 1-2-4 at nationals but are all below the age cutoff for senior worlds. That the age limit exists is not the issue; the issue is the pounding on young bodies under the new system's requirements, as juniors or seniors, so many of these talented skaters might fall apart physically soon after they are eligible for the Olympics and senior worlds.
I like the new system for accentuating the idea that figure skating is a sport. I hate it for accentuating that so much it has all but excluded artistry, except for those skaters who think arm waving counts as artistry.
I am sure nearly all of you who are up in arms upon the Weir-Lysacek calculations would agree with me on this:
Figure skating sadly has become a mind-numbing mathematical exercise, where artistry is only paint by numbers.
I've recently discovered that many fans of figure skating didn't quite know Tomas Verner. I received a couple of e-mail from people asking me who this guy was in my poll. Well, he's the European Champion for the first time in his career and a name we'll be seeing for some time to come.
He won the European title last week, defeating Lambiel and Joubert in the process. He is a skater who wears his emotion on his sleeve. You know when he's upset, you know when he's happy. After a great program, he's the skater that jumps up and down, pumps his fists, and nearly burts a blood vessel because he's so excited! And this season he has really shown he can compete with the best in the world. Besides his European win, he also skated great at the NHK Trophy, placing second but giving Takahashi a run for his money.
There have been few skaters from the Czech Republic I would call serious contenders (Sabovcik, Barna, Kavarikova and Novotny, and now Verner) but he very well may have the potential to be a contender hiself!
Yu-Na had been complaining of hip pain during her training in Toronto with her coach Brian Orser. After a medical check-up in Canada, it was discovered she had an injured Sacroiliac Joint on her left hip. That's when the decision was made to withdraw from the event. It is uncertain whether this injury will keep her out of the World Championships in Sweden in March.
This makes the clear favorite for the event in South Korea Japan's Mao Asada who has been nipping on Kim's heels all season. The two had a very close competition at the Grand Prix Final but Kim was the victor there. Other skaters to watch include Miki Ando, Fumie Suguri, Joannie Rochette, and Ashley Wagner.
NBC has agreed to be the U.S. broadcaster for the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles, sources said today. NBC would not confirm the deal, but spokesman Adam Freifeld said, "We take programming meetings with potential partners, and we have met with the ISU."
However, NBC hasn't picked up the Grand Prix Series however (with the exception of Skate America) so Americans may have to do without that series and the Grand Prix Final (Europeans and Four Continents Cup as well). At the very least we'll get to see the premiere Figure Skating as we gear up towards Vancouver in 2010.
And that is, perhaps, exactly why NBC choose to pick up the event. It's a way for NBC to begin building interest in its coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Also, solid numbers from last months U.S. Figure Skating Championships shows renewed interest in Figure Skating with several stars on the rise. Zhang, Flatt, and Nagasu may all have the opprotunity to make their World Figure Skating Championships debut!
Now if we could could just get the rest of the figure skating calendar covered...I guess there's always YouTube!
Next week is the Four Continents Cup (Five Continents actually as Brazil will have it's first competitor ever in Kevin Alves!) in Goyang City, South Korea and I am very excited to see the Ice Dance competition.
At both their respective National Championships, both Virtue and Moir of Canada and Davis and White of the United States turned in amazing free dances. Tessa and Scott won their first Canadian title while Meryl and Charlie earned a solid silver behind Belbin and Agosto.
There isn't musch depth at the competition however these two teams will, I think, put on quite a show. My gut feeling is that Virtue and Moir will have a small advantage over Davis and White but if the Canadians make one little mistake the Americans will be in striking distance.
Virtue and Moir have established themselves as one of the best teams in the world by medaling in both their Grand Prix events and placing fourth in the closest Ice Dance compettion ever at the Grand Prix Final. Davis and White had a sluggish start to their season but made a complete overhaul of their program for U.S. Nationals and was right behind Belbin and Agosto, beating the veteran team in the Technical Element Scores.
Looking beyond 2010 which I feel will be important competitions for both these teams, I think this is a rivalry which could endure to 2014 in Sochi, Russia. I'm simply impressed by both of these teams and look forward to the competition!
Funny, the audience at the Xcel Energy Center was discussing this just over a week ago and poof it happens!
Kimmie Meissner announced today that she will be working with Richard Callaghan and Todd Eldredge to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Sweden. This change comes as her season has steadily spiraled downward, she's placed lower in each competition she's entered this season than the previous. She began with a win at Skate America, then silver in Paris, sixth place in Torino for the Grand Prix Final and then a shocking seventh place at Nationals.
Whether this change is permanent or temporary is not yet known, however her remarks would make it seem as if she's leaving her longtime coach Pam Gregory. "I'm just really trying to put all my focus and energy into training for Worlds," Meissner said. "I'm grateful to Pam Gregory for everything she has done, but I needed to make some changes in order to regain my focus and confidence. I know I'm capable of making the podium at Worlds; that's my main goal right now."
Callaghan has had good success improving skaters jumps, as evidenced with Todd Eldredge who will be helping with the coaching, as well as Shizuka Arakawa, Nicole Bobek, and Tara Lipinski. Let's hope this is the change Kimmie really needs and she can turn this season around.
UPDATE: According to Ron Ludington, Head of the University of Delaware Skating Club, the move for Meissner is temporary. She is still enrolled in UD classes (although they will be online now as she will train with Callaghan and Eldredge in Florida) and is still on the ticket for a March 1 UD show.
While I'm still a bit ruffled that Dick Button had very little input on the commentary for NBC's coverage of U.S. Nationals, you simply can't deny NBC did a great job of hyping the competition.
When the Nielsen Ratings numbers were released, NBC's coverage of Nationals drew the biggest audience for the event in 5 years (ABC/ESPN was the previous carrier of the event). Last weekend's coverage on NBC attracted 12.5 million viewers, up from 4.7 million on ABC and ESPN2 last year.
An NBC spokesperson suggested that the advertising campaign for the event, Scott Hamilton and Sale and Pelletier's prescence, along with renewed interest in skaters such as Lysacek, Weir, and Zhang bolstered the numbers.
Such a strong showing for figure skating was desperately needed as ratings for the sport have fallen sharply over the past few years. This strong showing may nudge NBC to pick up the contract for the 2009 World Championships that are just over a year away and with no television sponsor in the U.S. Also the fact that all of the young competitors that did so well (McLaughlin and Brubaker, Zhang, Flatt, Nagasu) at Nationals will all be eligible to compete in L.A. I would think would give any of the major networks reason to take on the event.
So Brian Boitano has made the finalist list for the 2008 USOC Hall of Fame class! You can read his Olympic Bio below as well as vote for Brian by clicking the button that follows.
Boitano starred in multiple touring ice shows and won an Emmy for his performance in “Carmen on Ice.” In 1992, Boitano skated with Dorothy Hammill at the Superbowl XXVI half time performance, “Winter Magic.” In 1994, Boitano returned to amateur status to skate at the 1994 Olympic Games at Lillehammer, where he placed sixth. Boitano was elected to the World and U.S. Figure Skating Halls of Fame in 1996. As a professional, Boitano toured 11 seasons with John Hancock’s Champions on Ice Tour. He currently owns his own skating production company, White Canvas Productions, where he serves as Artistic Director.
