Recent Winners

The Junior Grand Prix Final keeps ticking. Take a look at the winners over the past two weekends below:

Junior Grand Prix Australia:

Junior Grand Prix Poland

Pics of the Week

It is finally here, the beginning of the Junior Grand Prix. I sent some some good luck tweets off and the skaters are hitting the practice ice as I type this.

Two very promising stars are competing in Courchevel. Polina Shelepen of Russia, who won both her Junior Grand Prix events and finished second at the Junior Grand Prix Final last season and American Jason Brown, the reigning U.S. Junior Champion.

Polina Shelepen is one of Russia's most promising up and coming skaters and this girl has a plan! Last month she spoke with Golden Skate's Tatjana Flade about her Junior debut last season and her goals. "I guess I can say that I fulfilled my plan to 50 percent. At the beginning of the season, I more or less did everything, then I wasn't in top shape towards the end. I think I have grown again and needed some time to adjust. But I really like being at the big competitions and enjoyed the Junior Grand Prix."

At just 15, she would have liked to have made her senior debut this season but will again compete in the Junior Ranks. Her coach Eteri Tutberidze explained, "We would have liked to move up to seniors in order to save time. Polina's job isn't so much to achieve certain placements, but to improve her overall skating. It is a process. The placements now aren't so important. It is important where we will finish in figure skating in ten or more years."

Olympic Champion in Sochi? Who knows...

Back on home soil Jason Brown is quickly moving up the ranks and he is doing so with some flair. I've had my eye on this guy since 2007 when he won at the U.S. Junior Championships (Juvenile Title) and he has steadily improved since. He medaled as an intermediate, as a novice, and won last season as a Junior. Also, I have to support the local skaters...chalk one up for Illinois! I remember watching his Short Program to "Hey Pachuco" at Nationals and thinking 'look at this kid go!' Then he did a complete 180 in the Free Skate performing to the "Pas de Deux" from The Nutcracker showing his versatility. I was impressed.

He makes his Junior Grand Prix this week in France and I have a feeling he is going to do well. He succeeds at everything he does and is an all around amazing guy. If you look at his Ice Network profile you see this huge list of amazing things he does including volunteering with the City Skate Outreach Program in Chicago and supporting Chicago Cares. He even turned his Bar Mitzvah into a charity project. That's awesome. And like Polina...he's only 15.

And I have to give Jason final props on his favorite show..."Glee". He's my kind of people!

U.S. Nationals (Day Three)

Scheduled Events for Today:

Senior Men's Free Skate
Novice Men's Short Program
Novice Pairs Short Program
Junior Men's Free Skate

Check this post for results and musings. I'll also be tweeting during the Senior Men's Free Skate at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern). You can follow me on Twitter @skating102. NBC will be showing the final two groups during the Senior Men's Free Skate Live. Check local listings.

The Men's Free Skate just concluded. First, in another post, I have to harp on NBC Sports which bought the rights to the final two groups of men which kept Ice Network from showing it live. Trouble is, NBC didn't show it either, robbing viewers from seeing the skaters ranked between 7th and 12th place. One off those skaters was Brandon Mroz, who had a tremendous skate that included a quad. He moved up to 6th and managed to save himself from having a tougher time getting back to nationals next season.

The top six were quite exciting. Ryan Bradley skated first and skated a tremendous skate! Two quads, one in combo and a standing ovation. He set the score to beat and neither Adam Rippon or Armin Mahbanoozadeh who skated after Ryan could beat him. Adam struggled on his triple axels and finished 5th overall while Armin's hip injury gave him problems and he fell to 8th. Evan Lysacek skated next. He attempted the quad but fell and looked tight from that point on. He doubled a triple loop and had a scratch axel combo. He recently reworked his program to make it harder and he looked a little uncomfortable with the new layout. Still, Evan gave a solid performance and took the lead from Bradley (but lost the free to him), and locked a spot on the Olympic Team. Johnny Weir was next and after a gorgeous triple axel combo, let the nerves creep in. He popped his second triple axel, stepped out of his triple toe behind a lutz, and skated very slowly. Despite finishing only 5th in the free, his lead from the short was good enough to get him in second ahead of Bradley and again probably locked a spot on the Olympic Team. Final skater of the night was Jeremy Abbott who blew the field away! A perfect skate that included a quad...I don't think many men in the world could get close to Abbott if he skates like this in Vancouver. He was brilliant and sent the roof off of Spokane Arena. His score was a whopping 263.66...and that was with, in my opinion, no inflation. I think that, at least for me, was the finest free skate from a man that I've ever had the pleasure to see. Pigs INDEED can fly!

UPDATE: Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, and Jeremy Abbott have all been named to the U.S. Olympic Team.

Several other events took place today in Spokane. After the novice men's short program, Nathan Chen leads Emmanuel Savary and Phillip Warren. In novice pairs, Vollmer and Sidhu lead Cain and Reagan and Oltmanns and Santillan after the short program. The junior men's competition wrapped today with a stunning performance from Jason Brown who took the Gold. Joshua Farris took the silver medal while leader after the short, Max Aaron settled for bronze.




Video courtesy KHQ Spokane