From time to time I check into the search engine queries that direct individuals to my blog. Here are some of the recent heavy hitters and all that I can offer on the topics:
Whitney Jo Lawson - The "Braniac" to competitive skater in six weeks flat! I did a post on her last October. She was on the MTV show "Made," must have re-aired. The original blog post is here.
There are a lot of searches associating Caroline Zhang with Don Laws, who coaches Patrick Chan. Not exactly why people are searching for these two in conjunction but I can tell you that Caroline will not be training under Laws, but rather Charlene Wong. You can check the story here.
Michelle Kwan - Nobody knows yet? No official word and the mystery Skate America slot persists...
Just a few days left! This time next week I'll be snug as a bug at the Staples Center. I have so much work to get done before I go...but I'm on top of it!
So this pic of the week features someone who most definitely will not be in the picture in Los Angeles, Jeffrey Buttle. He wowed us with a big win last year in Goteborg last season and then...retired from competitive skating! I still don't know what he was thinking but I guess he got everything out of the sport he needed (but the Olympics are in Canada next year...oh well).
But this is perhaps one of the most open men's competitions in recent years because their is a lot of last season's competitors not in the mix. Lambiel also retired from competitive skating because of injury, Takahashi had knee surgery and is currently recovering, Weir simply failed to make the U.S. Team.
That is not to say there aren't any big names competing. I bill this Worlds as: Technicals vs Artisticals (heh?)! You have the guys that jump...Joubert, Verner, Van der Perren, and Schultheiss against the super artsy guys like Chan, Kozuka, and Abbott.
But there is a third group...I'll call them the Technartists (...), and these are the guys that are fairly artsy that jump fairly well too. Guys like Lysacek, Voronov, Mroz, Oda, and Ponsero.
Of course of course...some of the techs can be artistic, some of the arts can jump...I'm just talking strong points here!
To be sure...I have no idea how all of this will pan out!
One more thing...I need my Canadian peeps to help me out...Fedor Andreev has been added to the list of competitors for Worlds...for Azerbaijan? Anyone know anything about this?
Okay okay...too much time on my hands for Christmas Eve! But before I let you go, I have to thank Susan at Lifeskate for posting a great article detailing Jeffrey Buttle's transition from competitor to choreographer.
Fedor Andreev has tapped Buttle to do his programs this season (a great choice I might add!) and the article featured the best quote this season so far. Johnny will have some catching up to do!
Beverly Smith at the Globe and Mail got the scoop. Here's Jeffrey commenting on what he wanted to 'do' with Fedor Andreev's programs:
"Fedor is a real good looking guy and I wanted to give him something sexy, even a bit subtle. He doesn't really need to do much to be sexy on the ice. It's just something I know he's never done before and something I think he could have a lot of fun with."
I've had on my blog for what seems like forever a poll asking which of the reigning World Champions would do best this season and the results are in!
Jeffrey Buttle came in last with only 7 votes...but since he decided to retire from competitive skating, that seems right. Pairs Champions from Germany Savchenko and Szolkowy came in third with only 12 votes. They were incredibly dominant last season, are skating enthusiasts having doubts about this year?
But the race to the top was clear. It was very close between Ice Dancers Delobel and Schoenfelder and of course Mao Asada. Asada was the early leader pulling out in front of everyone but Delobel and Schoenfelder began a massive surge. I can tell you that my blog tracker was recording lots of hits from France and actually about three weeks ago Delobel and Schoenfelder took the lead and it's been back and forth since. With the poll closing today, somehow, Mao Asada managed to squeak back ahead of them with 33 to 32 votes.
Only time will tell how these four (well three I guess...ah Buttle) do this season. But it's clear that the readers of this blog think both Asada and Delobel and Schoenfelder will do well.
FYI...just added a new poll!
Perhaps Savchenko and Szolkowy are a bit rusty. For your viewing pleasure here is Aliona and Robin's free skate from the recent Nebelhorn Trophy. They won the event but weren't perfect by any means in the process. The video includes a little fluff on the team and their coach Ingo Steuer. My German is terrible but if you watch I think you'll get the idea.
Oh my goodness! So apparently Jeffery Buttle has decided to retire from Olympic Eligible competition...GASP! Let me make sure you're understanding this...The reigning World Champion, whose skating has never been better, is opting to leave eligible competition with the Olympics in his home nation in less than two years! Wow...I'm speechless!
In an interview with CBC News (Canada) he said, "After a few months, and after I recovered from the high, I decided to look at everything I've accomplished. And coming to this decision, I had to make sure that I was proud and satisfied with everything that I've done. At that point, I was sure."
But with the Olympics so close, how could he come to this decision? "That was definitely the battle that was going on in my mind. I had to figure out if that was something that I really wanted. After the world championship, I was so happy with winning that I had to reflect on how important that was to me and having the Olympics here in Vancouver is important to me but winning them wasn't. It just wasn't in my heart."
Buttle has accomplished a bit...He's won three Canadian National Titles, an Olympic Bronze, and in Sweden took the World Title. He has a smattering of other titles and medals from various competitions.
My head is still spinning here but that is a major blow to the Canadian Men's Team that will now look to Patrick Chan to make their case in Vancouver in 2010. What seemed like a shoe-in for three spots at the Olympics is now in jeopardy. Canada will need to muster some more consistency between now and the World Championships in LA if they wish to have max representation at the Olympics.
Buttle's retirement may give Emanuel Sandhu a reason to attempt a comeback but that seems less likely daily.
Wow, I'm still in shock! But at least Buttle went out with a bang! "Representing Canada around the world has been an honour and I'm very proud of my achievements as a competitive figure skater," Buttle said. "I've had so much support throughout my career and I'll be forever grateful to my fans, coaches and of course, my family."
I feel I know very little about Jeffrey Buttle. But his recent win at the World Figure Skating Championships has shined a little light his way and now we want more!
Did you know he was (is?) a Chemical Engineering student at University of Toronto? There are lots of other facts about J. Buttle (that's what I call him) that I learned from this little Q & A from the National Post (Canada, that is).
He also eludes to the fact that he happy winning the gold medal, even if Joubert didn't particularly care for it (somebody huffed and puffed at the press conference because somebody who won didn't try a quad), but realizes he'll have to add a quad by Vancouver...
"I saw Daisuke Takahashi do two quads in the long program at the Four Continents event, and he amassed this huge score that none of us could touch. But on this day I was the best, but anything could happen on another day, and so I take it from it that, well, this is awesome — I won a world championship without the quad — but I need to put it in the program."
The 2008 World Figure Skating Championships have wrapped up in Goteborg (here in North America we call it Gothenborg...but I'm going with the Swedish spelling!) and what an unexpected and at times unusual set of events.
Let me begin with the Ice Dance competition. I was very happy to see Delobel and Schoenfelder of France win this. Eleven (yes...eleven!) consecutive appearances and in the first ten they had never won a medal...what perserverance! Their program set to the movie soundtrack "The Piano" is beautiful. While I felt they didn't skate as well as they did at the Grand Prix Final or Europeans, they were clearly the class of the field! What a huge outcome for the Canadians, Virtue and Moir, who took silver! I made a bold prediction earlier this season...that this team would challenge for the podium...and not to toot my horn but I was right! Their "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" program is just magical and I think Igor Speilband has truly worked his magic with this team...breathtaking. They had fantastic speed at the end of the program. Also, Susie Wynne made some great comments at the Four Continents Cup and they actually made the changes, going back to their original outfits that worked better and redoing the choreography to really bring back the speed, outstanding! I have a bit of an issue with the brionze medalists. While RussiansKhoklova and Novitski have made improvements in their skating and their lifts are amazing and crowd pleasing, I don't beleive their connective footwork, step sequences, or side by side movements are great and I feel they were given a big gift in that bronze medal. Kudos to the the Americans Belbin and Agosto for sticking with it after the fall in that Compolsory Dance and skating well from that point on...they just had to much ground to make up after that fall (however, a bit ridiculous that they lost ground to the Russians in the Original Dance!). They too had, in my opinion, an amazing Free Dance. Three spots for the U.S. in Ice Dance in L.A. due to Tanith and Ben's fourth and Davis and White's sixth place finishes.
With the men I must first issue an apology. True story: I had written Jeffery Buttle off this season. In my poll, I didn't even include him because after his less than great Grand Prix Season and failure to recapture his Canadian title, I just didn't think he had it in him to win...or even medal really. But alas, Jeffery Buttle has won the men's title in Goteborg, becoming the first Canadian since Elvis Stojko in 1997 to do so. Buttle had a clean free skate that lacked a quad so when the huge technical score came up I was at first shocked considering Brian Joubert, who ended up with the silver, had posted a big number just before him and seemed like the easy winner. But I rewound the TiVo and grabbed a calculator and added up the jump points between Joubert and Buttle and sure enough Buttle had a higher number. France's Joubert took out his quad combo and played it safe. Buttle threw everything he had and did it all with positive GOE's. That, along with level three and four spins and footwork made the difference. Not to take anything away from Joubert, he was great, especially considering the season he's had, that was an accomplishment. Nice to see the imporvements in his skating as well. And very well done for Johnny Weir as well, winning that bronze (the only medal for the U.S. at these worlds), and showing that his hard work has paid off. Also, that bronze medal when combined with Stephen Carriere's 10th place finish will earn three spots for the U.S. men in L.A. next year. The top three men's performances which dazzled were a stark contrast to the other men who seemed to self-implode. Verner, Takahashi, and Lambiel...all considered to be leading contenders for gold self-destructed and failed to skate well here in this event. I kind of feel like this event went to the underdogs!
I found the pairs event anti-climatic. The German team of Szolkowy and Savchenko took the title with a less than stellar free skate. The Chinese team of Zhang and Zhang were uninspiring in their silver medal. The best team, in my opinion, was bronze medalists Dube and Davison from Canada. I felt they had a heart out there and were really working at putting on a great performance. I just love this team and was very impressed with them at this event. How cool was the throw Quad Salchow from Kawaguchi and Smirnov of Russia! A shame the rest of their program didn't work out as well. And what was up with Maxim Trankov's (of Mukhortova and Trankov) costume/slash arm...use better material! And not such a good day for the U.S. I think U.S. Figure Skating needs to make a better effort at improving our Pairs program through funding and seminars because 10th and 12th just doesn't cut it. I'm also not happy with the age rule that prevented McLaughlin and Brubaker from competing here. My guess is that the U.S. is going to be squawking about this at the June ISU Congress!
I am really confused with the ladies competition. Confused isn't a good word...baffled! Let me begin with saying this..."in my opinion the judges got this one wrong...way wrong!" Japan's Mao Asada won the competition, as expected, but rather unexpectedly...let me explain. When she completely biffed it on that opening Triple Axel, I didn't think she was getting back up. But she went on to complete her program well (although she did get dinged on her Lutz for a wrong edge). Italy's Carolina Kostner is all over the place (which by the way, how did she ever win that short program? Meissner had a better short than she did!) but still gets great marks...okay? She wins the silver. Yu-Na Kim of South Korea was her cool elegant self. A single Lutz was her only mistake and actually she won the free skate and took the bronze. Here's my biggest beef...best program of the night was delivered by Yukari Nakano of Japan. Beautiful Triple Axel (that was ridiculously downgraded to a double!) and all the triples to boot and she loses ground and finished fourth...what? I could understand her not getting ahead of Asada and Kim but Kostner was horrific and no way should have beaten Nakano. It is times lke these when the I really don't like the current judging system. Kimmie Meissner wasn't great, but it was better, and it was clear improvements were made since Nationals...seventh place isn't a disaster but unfortunately only two U.S. ladies will get to compete in L.A. next year (shame considering we'll have the deepest field of ladies in the World!). I think the future is unclear for her. I will be a tough road to hoe moving forward for her to make next years' World Team and ultimately the Olympics...we'll have to wait and see. Also, wishing Miki Ando a speedy recovery as she had to withdraw due to a calf muscle tear, she was obviously devestated.
Interesting week in Goteborg. Seemed like a great audience for the event and I think it was over all a well done event. Also, weird to know that is the last time for ESPN/ABC to host the event. The figure skating banner is officially passed to NBC at this point.
Whitney Jo Lawson - The "Braniac" to competitive skater in six weeks flat! I did a post on her last October. She was on the MTV show "Made," must have re-aired. The original blog post is here.
I fairly certain that Alexei Yagudin is not planning on competing next season. He is about to be a dad! But Evgeny Plushenko is in!
