Plushenko news

Our dearest Plushenko hasn't been in any competitions since the 2006 Olympics in Torino, but he's still been busy...

March 13: Plushenko was elected into the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, winning 21.9% of the votes for the "Fair Russsia Spravedlivaya Rossia" party.

April 10: Plushenko says he will return to competition, after, "seeing the results of Russian skaters in the World Championships in Tokyo, I have decided to go back to competition. I want to keep Russian figure skating at a competitive level. I want to bridge the gap so our younger skaters have to train and be competitive, which should be in a few years... I feel strongly that I can be competitive and ready for the 2010 Olympics. I am doing triple Axels in my show programs on the Russian tour and landing quads in my practice sessions." He wasn't on the Grand Prix lists, but maybe we'll see him at Euros? I hope so!

April 20: Plushenko was recognized as the most stylish sportsman of the year at a Russian "Fashion Awards" ceremony.

May 19: Plushenko is training with his coach Alexey Mishin in the Spanish city Haka for the 2007-08 competitive season. He says that he has "made a decision to remain in amateur sport."

You may also want to read this interview with Plushenko and see his photoshoot pictures.

Grand Prix 2007-2008 Rosters

Aaah! Seeing the Grand Prix assignments excites me because then I get to analyze the rosters and then hypothesize what will happen... The Grand Prix of Figure Skating is the first international competition of the skating season. It's sometimes dissapointing because skaters who were brilliant the last seasons are older... sometimes they're just unfit and will be great by the end of the season, but other times their careers are waning. At the same time, the Grand Prix is great because new, young skaters emerge to dethrone the old.

Last year, we saw Miki Ando, Yu Na Kim, Brian Joubert, Tomas Verner and Daisuke Takahashi step up to the plate and really work hard to be consistent competitors. Stephane Lambiel, who was brilliant in the previous Olympic season, was dissapointing after missing most of the 06-07 season and only finishing with a bronze World medal. Still, he really fought for a great long program (his flamenco), and you sense that he will be back stronger than ever this upcoming year. Kimmie Meissner and Mao Asada were also dissapointing, and maybe were hyped a little too much before they were really ready for such high competition. In my mind, Kimmie's gold World medal was too easily won, as she was the only main competitor with with triple-triple jumps, and really didn't have any polish to her skating. I somehow doubt she'll be much better artistically this season, but I'll forgive her if she does better in terms of her elements this year: I'd like to see a triple axel to see her really be able to compete with Mao, and I think her triple-triples should be as consistent as Yu Na's and Miki Ando's if she really wants to medal.

Okay, so now that I've ranted and raved about last season, I'll put up the assignments that I promised, in the order I assume/want the skaters will place (just the highlights, for the full listings see: Mens, Ladies, Dance, Pairs.). An explanation will follow...

Mens:
Skate America
(1) Daisuke Takahashi
(2) Evan Lysacek
(3) Alban Preaubert
(4) Ryan Bradley

Skate Canada
(1) Brian Joubert
(2) Jeffery Buttle
(3) Nobunari Oda
(4) Kevin Van Der Perren

Cup of China
(1) Stephane Lambiel
(2) Johnny Weir
(3) Evan Lysacek

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Brian Joubert
(2) Tomas Verner
(3) Nobunari Oda
(4) Alban Preaubert
(5) Kevin Van Der Perren

Cup of Russia
(1) Stephan Lambiel
(2) Johnny Weir
(3) Jeffey Buttle

NHK Trophy
(1) Daisuke Takahashi
(2) Tomas Verner
(3) Sergei Davydov

Ladies:

Skate America
(1) Miki Ando
(2) Emily Hughes
(3) Kimmie Meissner
(4) Elene Gedevanishvili
(5) Caroline Zhang
(6) Mai Asada

Skate Canada
(1) Joannie Rochette
(2) Mao Asada
(3) Yukari Nakano
(4) Emily Hughes

Cup of China
(1) Yu Na Kim
(2) Carolina Kostner
(3) Fumie Suguri
(4) Julia Sebestyen
(5) Beatrisa Liang
(6) Caroline Zhang
(7) Susanna Poykio
(8) Alissa Czisny

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Sarah Meier
(2) Mao Asada
(3) Kimmie Meissner
(4) Aki Sawada

Cup of Russia
(1) Yu Na Kim
(2) Joannie Rochette
(3) Fumie Suguri
(4) Joannie Rochette
(5) Yu Na Kim

NHK Trophy
(1) Miki Ando
(2) Sarah Meier
(3) Carolina Kostner
(4) Elene Gedevanishvili
(5) Alissa Czisny
(6) Aki Sawada

Dance

Skate America
(1) Belbin/Agosto
(2) Davis/White
(3) Faiella/Scali

Skate Canada
(1) Denkova/Staviski
(2) Virtue/Moir
(3) Gregory/Petukhov

Cup of China
(1) Domnina/Shabalin
(2) Belbin/Agosto
(3) Kerr/Kerr
(4) Faiella/Scali

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Delobel/Schoenfelder
(2) Davis/White
(3) Khokhlova/Novitski

NHK Trophy
(1) Delobel/Schoenfelder
(2) Virtue/Moir
(3) Kerr/Kerr

Pairs:

Skate America
(1) Pang/Tong
(2) Castile/Okolski
(3) Dube/Davidson
(4) Nam/Leftheris

Skate Canada
(1) Savchenko/Szolkowy
(2) Dube/Davidson
(3) Kawaguchi/Smirnov

Cup of China
(1) Pang/Tong
(2) Inoue/Baldwin
(3) Nam/Lefteris

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Castile/Okolski
(2) Zhang/Zhang
(3) Mukhortova/Trankov (really I have no clue.)

Cup of Russia
(1) Savchenko/Szolkowy
(2) Zhang/Zhang
(3) Kawaguchi/Smirnov

NHK Trophy
(1) Inoue/Baldwin
(2) Li/Xu
(3) Langlois/Hay
(4) REALLY I HAVE NO CLUE WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE BECAUSE THEY ALL SUCK.

so um, basically in Pairs I just love Savchenko/Szolkowy and that's it....

Favorite Pairs Programs

Best team ever, for me, would have to be Tatiana Tomianina and Maxim Marinin. Words cannot adequately describe the beauty of their short program at the 2006 Olympics to "Snowstorm"; their connection, presence, technical ability (apart from Maxim's lifts, which are a little shaky), grace, line... everything is perfect.

Shen and Zhao are another couple who are beautiful on the ice although have, sadly, retired. To finish off their careers, they won every pairs competition they entered last season, topping it off with a gorgeous program at Worlds. They're now getting married (after Zhao proposed to Shen at the end of their program), and I wish the couple the best.

So now that those two couples have retired, pairs skating is pretty boring, with one exception. I'm not a big fan of Zhang/Zhang (A little too much hype after that fall in Torino) but I do appreciate the talents of Pang and Tong. The couple that keeps me watching and that may be able to bring back the competitiveness and athleticism in Pairs as well as bring new modernity to the sport is the pair of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. This year, they claimed the European title with a fantastic long program to "The Mission" and came third at Worlds, skating especially well in the short program. They are truly a team to watch in the future. Hopefully they will continue to liven up the otherwise boring pairs competition...

Favorite dance programs.

The French team of Delobel and Schoenfelder never cease to create free programs that are unique and ingenuitive. Their free dance to "Carnival in Venice" during last year's Worlds was amazing, and definately didn't recieve the points it deserved to. This year, the on-and-off-the-ice pair skated wonderfully to "Bonnie and Clyde", the height of their season being a gold medal at Europeans.
Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxm Staviski are my favorite dance pair because they completely bring you into their world. They always put out mesmerizing performances that completely captivate you. Last season, they skated to a modern arrangement of "Adagio" and topped their season off with a gold medal at Worlds, and while previously only finishing 5th at the Olympics in Torino, I believed they deserved better. This season, they came first at Worlds again, putting out another beautiful and engaging performance to a mix of "Lacrimosa: Requiem" and "Romeo and Juliet".

Favorite singles programs.

The most inspiring program, to me EVER EVER EVER was Stephane Lambiel's exhibition program at the 2006 Worlds, after he won the gold (which was an intense program, too). It was so breathtaking because he was himself out there, and completely let loose and showed his heart and most of all talent, which is the exact purpose of an exhibition. Plus, he wears JEANS.


Another program that amazed me was Yu Na Kim's long program in the Eric Bompard Trophee leg of the Grand Prix 06-07. She ousted favorite Kimmie Meissner for the gold. She was beautiful in it, and it still is unbeleivable to me that she is only 16 years old. She has such poise and grace, handling pressure so well and is, above all, extremely emotional for her age. Her skating is her expression, and she manages to bring us into her world. She is truly an exquisite skater.


And now, for a retro clip: Debi Thomas' 1987 Worlds long program. She recieved the silver medal. Her split-tripletoe-doubletoe is amazing, and I really like how she expresses herself on the ice. She has her own personal style and that really comes out in her performances.

fobioh skates, too!

This is a blog for figure skating. I figured that football fans and figure skating fans aren't really the same people, so JUST FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE I've made an additional blog for skating rants, etc.

Since it's the summer right now, I'll post injuries and any other skating news I can find. I'll also give you videos of programs from this summer's shows. If there isn't anything else interesting, I'll post old programs, etc. and analyses of past events to sort of catch up on everything. There are a lot of programs I believe EVERYONE should see to be an 'educated' person, so I'll put those up, eventually.

Maybe in this blog I'll sound like I actually KNOW something about the sport. It's cause I skate. If you've noticed, I don't know shite about football, actually. But I do know loads on skating, so all of this is perfectly valid information (ahaha, but still hella biased).