Chinese Stars Carry Torch

World Champions and Olympic bronze medalists from China, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, carried the torch in the Olympic torch relay Friday morning, and they lit the cauldron at "Sunny Stone" square. Check out the pictures at China's Olympic website.

Nancy Kerrigan is Honored

Olympic silver medalist Nancy Kerrigan will be honored by Ice Theatre of New York this October, according to International Figure Skating magazine. Paul Wylie will MC the event. The benefit gala is at Chelsea Piers, write to itny@icetheatre.org for more information about attending, etc. There will also be a performance by Ice Theatre at the gala.

Eldredge Talks Coaching, Meissner

This IceNetwork article is a nice look at how Todd Eldredge has been spending the summer. And part of it has involved coaching - one of his students is Kimmie Meissner (you'll remember that Meissner started to work with Richard Callaghan, who is also Eldredge's old coach). I can definitely see Todd coaching. He's one of those skaters who always looked like the wheels were turning inside his head during every competition, and maybe that's an even better skill for a coach to have than a skater. Here's what he had to say about working with Kimmie:

He's helping coach Richard Callaghan get Meissner's career back on track. "Trying to get her to come out of her shell a little bit," Eldredge says. "Get her consistent on her jumps. Get her spins better. Get her footwork better.

"Right now, I'm trying to get her to use her knees a lot when she's skating. She skates a little bit stiff in her knees. If she were able to get down in her knees a little bit it would look nice and help her posture. I'm working on little nit-picky things. Obviously, she's a world champion, so she's good. But it's the little nit-picky things that you try to pick up and improve on to make her that much better."

I'm pretty excited to see Meissner this year and I hope there's an improvement now that she's been with her new coaches for several months.

Oksana Baiul Conquers Internet

Oksana Baiul will be featured on the Internet talk show Latenet, according to Science Fiction Buzz. She is talking about her role in the groundbreaking (or should I say icebreaking? heh!) broadway musical COLD AS ICE (I NEED OPENING NIGHT TICKETS, STAT!).

You New Yorkers are in luck because you can buy tickets, and a portion of those ticket proceeds go to Project A.L.S. Check out the link for more information, the show is in New York on July 23.

P.S. The reason for the science fiction attention is that Leonard Nimoy (Spock!) is also on the show.

Joan Manley

Here is a lovely article in the Ottawa Citizen about Elizabeth Manley's mother, Joan Manley, who passed away this week at 73 years old.

More Animated Than Usual

Check out this press release from IceNetwork for a look at what Scott Hamilton will look like in the Fairly Oddlympics. It's adorable, and I think Hamilton is such a vibrant, animated personality to begin with, it really is not that far a stretch to see him as a cartoon. He's got a great cartoon voice too. I'm only mad that I missed his other foray into animation where he played a dog in Nine Dog Christmas, sounds cute!

Johnny Weir's Blog

An update from Johnny Weir's blog. He talks a lot about the shows he's been skating in and how he's spent the off-season. He also mentions training with Stephane Lambiel since Lambiel has switched coaches to Viktor Petrenko. Here is a snippet:

...I don't think anything bad will come out of this arrangement. I trust that my coaches will still work with me the same as they did before. I'm at the age, and maturity that I can understand that nothing Stephane does on a daily basis can change my ultimate goals or my drive. I will work hard and do my best regardless if one of my top rivals is there to see it or not. I know how well my coaching change worked for me last season and I'm glad that has been recognized by a top athlete no less, and I hope it will work for Stephane.

Weir also seems a bit sad to be missing out on Cup of Russia in the Grand Prix this year, but says he hopes to get there next year.

He also wrote about how Nina Petrenko (Galina Zmievskaya's daughter and Viktor's wife) choreographed a show number and that went so well that she is now choreographing his competition programs this year.