3rd Annual Loop Axel Awards

Ah yes, it's that time of year when we get to bask in the after glow of the season and hand out some much deserved awards. This season is especially interesting as it was an Olympic year.

Sit back...relax...and let the awards begin!

Much like last year, this will be a two day affair. We'll get the official stuff out of the way today and have a little more fun tomorrow!

The categories are:

*Best Ladies Free Program
*Best Men's Free Program
*Best Free Dance
*Best Pairs Free Program
*Best Comeback
*Best Olympic Performance (NEW)
*Short Program/Original Dance of the Year
*Best Forgotten Performance of the Season
*Worst Performance of the Season
*Skater of the Year

*Best Ladies Free Program...the nominees are:

+Mao Asada - 2010 World Figure Skating Championships
+Joannie Rochette - 2010 Canadian Nationals
+Akiko Suzuki - 2009 Samsung Anycall Cup of China
+Kim Yu-Na - 2010 Olympic Winter Games

And the winner is...Kim Yu-Na - Gershwin's Concerto in F - 2010 Olympic Winter Games. I don't think there was a lot of competition here. That was not only the greatest ladies free this season but perhaps this decade (ever?). It was sophisticated, elegant, reserved, thoughtful, and really just brilliant.

*Best Men's Free Program...the nominees are:

+Nobunari Oda - 2009 Trophy Eric Bompard
+Jeremy Abbott - 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships
+Daisuke Takahashi - 2010 World Figure Skating Championships
+Evgeny Plushenko - 2009 Rostelecom Cup
+Evan Lysacek - 2010 Olympic Winter Games

The winner is...Jeremy Abbott - Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3 - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships. That was hard because almost equally as impressive was Daisuke Takahashi's World's Free. I went with Abbott because it was delivered with effortless perfection while Takahashi had to work it a little (little two foot on the quad flip, muscled triple flip/triple toe combo). Both were masterpieces though.

*Best Free Dance...the nominees are:

+Davis and White - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships
+Weaver and Poje - 2009 HomeSense Skate Canada
+Virtue and Moir - 2010 Olympic Winter Games
+Faiella and Scali - 2010 European Championships
+Belbin and Agosto - 2009 Cancer.Net Skate America

The winner is...Meryl Davis and Charlie White - Webber's Phantom of the Opera - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships. It was such an impressive skate because Belbin and Agosto had thrown down the gauntlet with an amazing performance of their own but Meryl and Charlie just killed it in return...it was incredible.

*Best Pairs Free Program...the nominees are:

+Shen and Zhao - 2009 ISU Grand Prix Final
+Denney and Barrett - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships
+Savchenko and Szolkowy - 2009 HomeSense Skate Canada
+Pang and Tong - 2010 Olympic Winter Games
+Sui and Han - 2009 Junior Grand Prix: Belarus

The winner is...Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy - Out of Africa Soundtrack - 2009 HomeSense Skate Canada. This was another tough call. The other performance I considered for top honors was Shen and Zhao's Grand Prix Final performance but in my gut I just thought Savchenko and Szolkowy had a little tiny spark that made their performance extra special.

*Best Comeback...the nominees are:

+Evgeny Plushenko
+Sasha Cohen
+Stéphane Lambiel
+Shen and Zhao

The winner is...Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao. In this award which seems very fitting in Olympic years, the candidates were the four who made competitive comebacks this season, and out of all of them, Shen and Zhao certainly took the cake for coming out ahead, nailing an Olympic Gold in the process.

*Best Olympic Performance...the nominees are:

+Joannie Rochette
+Davis and White
+Virtue and Moir
+Johnny Weir
+Kim Yu-Na

The winner is...Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - Mahler's Symphony No. 5. There were several sensational Olympic performances I considered for this new award, again applicable only in Olympic years, but their performance seemed most fitting, largely due to the fact that they did it at home against several teams all skating their very best. Joannie Rochette's inspiring demonstration of courage was given great consideration. I was there...there were very few dry eyes after both of her performances.

*Short Program/Original Dance of the Year...the nominees are:

+Kim Yu-Na - 2010 Olympic Winter Games
+Mao Asada - 2010 Olympic Winter Games
+Sasha Cohen - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships
+Denis Ten - 2009 HomeSense Skate Canada
+Davis and White - 2010 World Figure Skating Championships

The winner is...Meryl Davis and Charlie White - Indian Folk Dance - 2010 World Figure Skating Championships. This seemed an easy choice as it was one of the most original things put to ice. Any performance of this OD this entire season is worthy of the award.

*Best Forgotten Performance of the Season...the nominees are:

+Shawn Sawyer - 2009 Cancer.Net Skate America (Free)
+Tomas Verner - 2009 Eric Bompard Trophy (Short)
+Sergei Voronov - 2010 Russian National Figure Skating Championships (Short)
+McLaughlin and Brubaker - 2009 Rostelecom Cup (Short)
+Navarro and Bommentre - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships (Free)

The winner is...Shawn Sawyer - Amadeus Soundtrack - 2009 Cancer.Net Skate America. It was the most unlikely silver medal of the entire Grand Prix series but it was well earned when a good deal of the men's field at that event commenced in a splat fest.

*Worst Performance of the Season...the nominees are:

+Nobunari Oda - 2010 World Figure Skating Championships (Short)
+Brian Joubert - 2010 Olympic Winter Games
+Jeremy Abbott - 2010 Olympic Winter Games (Short)
+Sasha Cohen - 2010 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships (Free)
+Jeremy Abbott - 2009 NHK Trophy (Free)

And the winner is...Nobunari Oda - Mrvica's Totentanz - 2010 World Figure Skating Championships. Poor thing...not only did he pop every single jump in that short program, but for the first time failed to even qualify for the free skate. Ouch!

*Skater of the Year...and the nominees are:

+Davis and White
+Kim Yu-Na
+Shen and Zhao
+Virtue and Moir
+Evan Lysacek

And the winner is...Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao. What they accomplished was nothing short of extraordinary. And I love that they didn't just comeback to just do the Olympics...they did the whole season and went undefeated in the process. Four Olympics, three Olympic Medals...impressive!

Check back tomorrow for the second half of the 3rd Annual Loop Axel Awards

2nd Annual Loop Axel Awards

Part Two...time for some of the more interesting awards. Lots of these are new awards that weren't amongst the ranks of awards last season. It's just so much fun to hand out awards (which is interesting since I'm 'really' not handing any awards out!). Categories include:

*Best Jump (NEW)
*Best New Face
*Hottest Skater
*Best Fall
*Best Coach
*Most Improved Skater (NEW)
*Best Outfit (NEW)
*The OMG Moment of the Season (NEW)
*Best Comeback (NEW)
*Blog of the Year (NEW)

*Best Jump award goes to Canadian Vaughn Chipeur for his Triple Axel in the short program at Cup of China that just took us all by surprise. If you've never seen his Axel...it's huge! Other great jumps that were taken into consideration include Evan Lysacek's Quad at the Four Continents Cup, Mao Asada's Triple Axel at the Grand Prix Final, and every jump Miki Ando attempted in the Free Skate at Worlds. ;-)

*Best New Face goes to Denney and Barrett. They really have been remarkable this season. Being a team for such a short period of time and in their two first international competitions, to put down clean free skates...impressive. It was the year of Ten as well, as I considered both Jeremy (the Canadian version) and Denis (the version from Kazakhstan) as well as Russian newbie Alena Leonova.

*Hottest Skater is always tricky for me. Like last year, I had to confer with others. I actually put together a panel of six individuals (close friends) and put 4 skaters in front of them. It was a tie so I broke the tie with my vote and named Aliona Savchenko the winner. She is a stunner, so much so, that at the Public Pairs Medal Ceremony in L.A. Peter Carruthers looked at her, stepped back, looked at her again and proclaims, "She's looking good, huh? Very L.A." Before my tie breaker, Keauna McLaughlin was right up there with her, but as she is only 16 it felt a little wierd. Also in the mix was Alexander Smirnov (last year's winner!) and Rockne Brubaker (although he had tamed the curls at Worlds...and that made me sad).

*Best Fall award absolutely goes to Candice Didier for that frightening fall she had on an easy triple toe in the free skate at Worlds. I thought no way can she comeback from that, not only did she, but earned a standing ovation for the heroics she displayed. Two other Worlds falls made the nominee list, Yuko Kavaguti's spill on her throw quad salchow and Jenna McCorkell's fall in the free skate. Also on the list, Emily Hughes for her crash and burn Triple Flip at Eric Bompard Trophy.

*Best Coach I decided to give to Nikolai Morozov. At almost any competition, he is the coach for like a third of the competitors...no joke. I always wonder how he has the time to teach so many but he must be doing something right as he has so many high level athletes. Almost gave it to the dup of Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karpanossov for getting both Domnina and Shabalin and Belbin and Agosto in such amazing shape for worlds with little prep time. Brian Orser made the list for his amazing work with Yu-Na Kim and recently Adam Rippon, and Tatiana Tarasova for her work with both Lysacek (she worked with him to perfect and work out his program a bit) and Asada.

*The Most Improved Award goes to Samuel Contesti who really put himself on the map this season with an unexpected Silver at Europeans and a really solid 5th place finish at Worlds. Previously (and as Frenchman) , not even close to being in the mix at major international competitions, suddenly he's a big time competitor! I considered Caroline Zhang for the remarkable progress she has made this season, Adam Rippon for the same, and Kavaguti and Smirnov for really beginning to gel as a team.

*The Best Outfit Award is highly subjective and I'm sure plenty will completely disagree with me but I went with Kerr and Kerr's Free Dance Outfit. There is a story behind the program, brother and sister that survive a natural disaster, and I think the costumes tell that story beautifully without being over the top. I was a big fan of Samuelson and Bates Original Dance Outfit, especially Evan in his Popeye bits. Although some thought it a bit 'nude' I liked Ashley Wagner's 'Spartacus' digs. I'm also a sucker for gloves, and loved Nobunari Oda's 'Warsaw Concerto' get-up.

*The OMG (Oh My God!) Moment of the Season for me was definitely when I was looking at the scoreboard inside Quicken Loans arena and said "Did Alissa Czisny just win National's?" I had several OMG moments this season, thus the award, including "Did Craig Buntin just slice his hand in half on Megan Duhamel's blade?" Also, "Did Patrick Chan just bitch-slap Brian Joubert in the L.A. Times over a Quad jump?" Don't forget, "Jeffrey Buttle just retired! Did he get the memo that the Olympics were in Canada next year?"

*Best Comeback award goes to Miki Ando for after a rocky season, getting it together to have a...well at the least...technically proficient skate at Worlds to claim the Bronze medal. Belbin and Agosto nearly got it for getting it together to fast and narrowly missing the World Title. Tomas Verner for finishing 4th this season at Worlds after the disaster and meltdown that was Goteborg, Sweden. And Alissa Czisny for almost keeping it together the entire season.

*The last award is a fun one. Our online skating community is growing and I'd like to take a little time to give some credit where I think some credit is due. I give the best figure skating blog award to myself...just kidding! Actually, after some long thought I really decided to give it to Lifeskate! Susan over there is a genius and I look at Lifeskate as more than a blog, but rather a resource for all things skating. She not only keeps tabs on competitive figure skating, but also professional skating, adult skating, synchronized skating, leisure skating, Ice Theatre, special events, basically everything. Her Journalism skills are crazy...she got interviews with Lu Chen and Denis Petrov...in Shenzhen, China! Exclusives with Nikolai Morozov, Johnny Weir, etc. etc. etc...Lifeskate...we are not worthy! If you have not bookmarked this site...who am I kidding...of course you already have it bookmarked!

That does it for the 2009 edition of the Loop Axel Awards.

If you missed part one...they're right here.

You can revisit the class of 2008 here.