Sometimes I Confuse my Duran Duran Songs

I just finished watching my DVR of "Dancing with the Stars." I think the judges are much easier on the men, on a whole. I was a little worried about Kristi when I heard the judges but thankfully she pulled out another triple nine to get 27, the highest score.

Marlee Matlin: I thought she was great, even better than before. However, the judges seemed to be able to pick out more problems than I could and gave her sevens.

The Gute: I love him because he's got such a great attitude, and he refers to himself as the Gute. However, he is not the greatest dancer. I never can really tell if they're doing a good job with the tango though because it's so slow, but I'm glad he got positive feedback.

Cristian de la Fuente: I may not know dance but I know bad posture when I see it and this guy did not deserve a nine. I guess the judges were watching someone else. Also, who is he again?

Mario: I could tell he wasn't on the game as much as before, which is too bad because he really has the ability to steal this competition, he's such a great performer and he obviously has the moves, I think it's just a question of practice now.

Shannon Elizabeth: I think she's great! I can tell that she is a bit rough around the edges but she really does some hard moves and she doesn't look awkward or anything. Hopefully she will stay around for awhile.

Adam Corolla: I was kind of distracted by Julianne's wig. He was fine, an improvement.

Priscilla Presley: She was fine, I thought it was a good dance. This lady looks like she is truly in it to win it.

Marissa Jaret Winokur: Um...I definitely almost cried when the judges were telling her that she wasn't trying. I mean, everything about that girl says she's trying. Perhaps the choreography wasn't ambitious enough, but that's not really her fault. The fact that she scored lower than Adam Corolla was laughable. But not in the good way!

Jason Taylor: Better than I would ever have expected. Still, not as exciting as some of the others. The judges were so excited that this tall guy didn't fall all over himself that they forgot to mention that he was just as boring as Marissa and maybe that meant he "wasn't trying" either? OK, I'm a bit bitter. He IS fun to watch and has a great attitude.

Kristi Yamaguchi: She was great, but I agree that she could have emoted more. But she really is spot on (I'm guessing...again, the tango is tough for me to judge).

Buttle Talks Quads

Men’s figure skating world champion Jeffrey Buttle of Canada concedes in an interview with The National Post that he will likely have to add a quad to his program at some point. The reason Buttle won worlds was that he skated brilliantly, while others faltered. But, had the other skaters performed perfectly (and not come into the long program way behind), Buttle would not have been able to amass the scores that other skaters completing quads could have.

NP Brian Joubert, the silver medalist at the worlds, groused at the post-skate press conference that you didn’t even attempt a quad-jump. Was that just sour grapes on his part?
JB Honestly, in the moment, he was probably frustrated and I could have said a few things back. But I chose not to. He had one jump that I didn’t have, but unfortunately, for him, there are 11 other jumps in the long program and I happened to score higher. And it wasn’t a win by a small margin, so I didn’t take it personally, plus, I had the gold medal around my neck.

NP Will you need a quad-jump in your program to challenge for gold at the Olympics in 2010?
JB 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.

Check in with Michelle Kwan

It looks like Michelle Kwan's career (side job?) as a diplomatic envoy is still in full force. According to The Washington Post, she was sent to Buenos Aires last week after a probable State Department snub of the country due to its increasing closeness to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

State Department officials insist that Rice had only a few days for the trip and couldn't squeeze in Buenos Aires. Besides, it should be noted that the department dispatched Olympic figure-skating medalist Michelle Kwan down there right after Rice's non-snub "to begin her third tour as a State Department Public Diplomacy Envoy."

Kwan's trip, we're told, followed "highly successful envoy visits to China and Russia in 2007."

Okay, so ice skating may not exactly be Argentina's national pastime, but Kwan probably got a warmer greeting than Rice would have.

Tonya Harding and Politics, Who Knew

Well, the moment you've all been waiting for: Someone compared 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to everyone's favorite figure skating felon, Tonya Harding.

On ABC's Jake Tapper's "Political Punch" blog, Tapper said he spoke to an anonymous Democratic Party official (oh, we love those anonymous sources) who said it is not a question of whether Clinton can get the nomination (she can), but of what she'll have to do to get it:

What will she have to do to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in order to eke out her improbable victory?

She will have to "break his back," the official said. She will have to destroy Obama, make Obama completely unacceptable.

"Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the 'Tonya Harding option.'" the official said. "Is that really what we Democrats want?"

The Tonya Harding Option -- the first time I've heard it put that way.

It implies that Clinton is so set on ensuring that Obama doesn't get the nomination, not only is she willing to take extra-ruthless steps, but in the end neither she nor Obama win the gold.

Now, Tonya Harding didn't break anyone's back, although she allowed a man to be hired to try to break someone's knee, so I guess that comparison is apt, if that's what the official was getting at. But that part that was added by Tapper doesn't make sense to me; Nancy Kerrigan was better by the time she skated in the 1994 Olympics, so her not sealing the gold has nothing to do with Harding or anything that she did. It was mostly the judges preference for Baiul. Am I nitpicking too much on an already ridiculous comparison that just made news because of the use of the name Tonya Harding? Perhaps. (And by perhaps, I mean - of course!).

Anyway, I kind of wish something would be able to bring skating the kind of popularity it saw after the Harding/Kerrigan scandal. Only I wish that this time it could be something nonviolent.

Dancing with the Kristi

Well, you all probably know by now that the girl who was born to dance/skate, Kristi Yamaguchi, did amazingly well on the Monday installment of Dancing with the Stars. She was absolutely perfect and fun and there were no competitors who even came close to bother blogging about.

However, I was a tad worried. The judges seemed less than enthused (at least compared with how they were for the other competitors) about Kristi's perfection. They even admitted to trying to find ANYTHING wrong with her performance. This may sound good for now, but we all know if Kristi ever makes even the slightest mistake she will be killed for it. Maybe the judges think she's too good to be true as well! Either way, she'll be fun to watch no matter what.

Men's Competition Thoughts

I thought the men's competition ended exactly as it should have, which is a bit refreshing. Although, the commentators thought Joubert had the title sewn up. I know less about the scoring system than they do though, so that's fine. I know Buttle didn't have a quad, but the jumps he did have were clean and impressive. Joubert, however, was not quite as impressed, according to thestar.com:

Sitting next to Buttle on the dais at the press conference that followed, Joubert – who won silver here – could barely contain his disdain for a rival who copped gold without even attempting a quadruple jump.

"I'm still disappointed because Jeffrey did the perfect combination but he didn't try the quadruple jump.

The scoring system has changed so much. It's better now to do simple and clean than to try something difficult.

"We need to give more points for the quads."

If hurt or angry by those remarks, Buttle didn't show it, though he countered with a pointed defence.

"Figure skating is everything. It's not just about the jumps. I definitely feel like I earned the title and I'm happy."

Now, don't forget that Joubert is so confident in his scoring potential that he chooses to put lyrics into his program, even though it is an automatic one point deduction. I think I prefer his skating to Buttle's, but the cockiness has got to go (although maybe that's part of his appeal? I don't know).

I was glad Johnny Weir was able to snag that bronze medal, it was his first world's medal and it also meant he assured the United States men would have three competitors at next year's competition in Los Angeles.

It was interesting during the televised interview with Peter Carruthers; he compared himself to Michelle Kwan at the 1998 Olympics, skating too cautiously to win. It definitely was a careful, if unambitious, skate, unlike Joubert's, and Weir only beat the next closest competitor, Japan's Dice-K of ice (Daisuke Takahashi), by a very small margin. I liked Johnny's free skate and really enjoyed the footwork at the end. However, he's going to have to add some more jumps at the end not only so he can get the bonus points but also so that his program is more balanced. We'll see what he does next year.

Speaking of Dice-K, I DID like the Cyber Swan short program, although the mix was very early 90s to me, so it made me laugh when the announcers called it cutting edge. However, I thought it worked well and his choreography was very entertaining and difficult. I actually also really enjoyed his Romeo and Juliet long program as well, too bad about all of the jumps.

Thoughts on the Ladies Free Skate and More on Fashion

I decided to cover both skill and style in the same post as I watch the Ladies Long Program.

Let's start with a word on the Americans. They were quite a disappointment. They all did pretty well in the short program, although their difficulty levels prevented them from earning better scores, but too many falls in the long, and not enough energy. I was so sad to see the wind knocked out of Kimmie Meissner's sails - it doesn't seem like she can shake off these types of performances anymore. I guess she'll need some more time working on her jumps with Richard Callaghan.

Also, it was quite valiant of Miki Ando to attempt the long program, so sad she had to withdraw.

Carolina Kostner: Great start on the triple jump combo. But...the whole thing turned into quite a mess. I don't really like to see people mess up like that and still win a medal, because it seems that means the level of competition is pretty low. As far as her costume, she did not disappoint. I tried to ignore the fact that it was designed by Roberto Cavalli (although the skirt was quite cute and very Cavalli). But, the rest of the outfit was a hot mess. I thought for a second that it was the same costume I wore at my second grade tap dance recital but then they went and mentioned Cavalli so I guess not.

Yu-Na Kim: First of all, she skated to Miss Saigon, which I'm pretty sure she chose just to get me in her corner. It worked. After an impressive triple/triple combo, she later popped one jump and was a bit shaky on some landings, but overall I was very impressed. I was a bit shocked that Kim didn't beat Kostner.

Kiira Korpi: Terrible...I cannot even tell you. Also sad was seeing Dick Button turn on Korpi through the program. He LOVED her at the beginning of the program, and even went so far as to try to say that one of her falls shouldn't even matter that much, because she did not fall on her shoulder and slam into the boards and disrupt the program for several seconds (he really said this, no joke). But then by the end of the program, with all of the falls, he actually said she had no business being in the last group of skaters, which was kind of sad, but true. Her outfit was gorgeous though. It was a very similar color to Kostner's but just such a pretty outfit with nice use of crystals!

Mao Asada: Wow, that triple axel takeoff fall was scary! And boy, ABC loved showing it to me like three times in slo-mo. She did slam right into the boards. And then she came back and stayed on her feet completing triples the whole way. Now THAT'S how you come back from a fall. I was so happy to see her win and I think she definitely deserved it. She had a burgundy/mauve type outfit going on. It wasn't too bad, but mostly I felt it made her look quite grown-up, which was nice.

Yukari Nakano: I will tell you about the program when I regain my sight.

Ok, back. Awesome triple axel! Cleanest free skate of the night and I think the fact that she didn't win a medal is enough reason to completely revamp the scoring system. Apparently, the judges did not give her credit for all of her triples.

Button mentioned that the marks given to Kostner were interesting in how they fit into the "Asian invasion." Don't ask me to figure that remark out or what he was implying...but either way, the problems with figure skating judging just got even more blatant.

Weir: Last U.S. Hope

Just a quick men's update, although I haven't seen any of the performances. Johnny Weir apparently had a "brilliant" short program so he is in medal contention for the men's competition, which goes on in a few hours. Let's hope he can score some redemption for the embarrassing American showing at these world championships.

On that note, a quick update of the Ice Dancing results from a Canada.com story:

France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder won the ice dancing crown at the world figure skating championships on Friday with a flowing and ethereal free dance routine.

Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir claimed the silver medal with a pitch-perfect performance to the soundtrack of the musical Umbrellas of Cherbourg that won them the highest technical marks of the evening.

Delobel and Schoenfelder, the European silver medalists and favorites for the Gothenburg gold after European champions Oxana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin's injury withdrawal, finished the three-part contest with a total score of 212.94 points.

The bronze went to Russians Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski. Belbin and Agosto, favored by so many heading into the competition, could not recover from the early fall in the compulsories and finished in fourth - a big disappointment.

Fashion-blogging the Ladies, Part 1

Well. I didn't have the plan to do this, but I was so struck by the costumes in the short program that I had to give a little critique. I decided that it was time to give out some recognition to the most interesting (ugly? heinous?) costumes I can remember seeing in a long time.

Best use of that nude stuff in a costume:Well, this was a tough one. There were a lot of ladies who just couldn't resist that nasty sheer nude material that I am guessing is supposed to give off a different look to the crowd than it does to the television cameras. But - does it even work for the crowd? I have only ever been to skating exhibitions and professional competitions and I don't recall this being as big in those types of settings as it appears to be in the amateur competitions. So, if anyone has seen this in person and would like to chime in about how awesome it is, let me know.

But I digress. My preference is for Bebe Liang, because she didn't try to pretend that she had some sexy off-the shoulder thing going on and she used sequins (crystals?) well. I have no idea how to post photos wherever I want in this blog so I apologize for these links to what I'm talking about.

Best attempt at making me hate my hips even more:

Kiira Korpi, why do you haunt me so? With your seemingly French-inspired costume that included a black and white HORIZONTALLY-striped skirt, even Peggy Fleming pointed out that most people cannot get away with a striped skirt. You were just trying to make me feel bad. Also, when you skated out, my boyfriend thought you were Gwen Stefani for a second, and I guess I can kind of see the Gwen vibe in your costume, so you also get a prize for that.

Best Homage to Peggy Fleming:

Well, Terry Gannon may think worlds veteran Julia Sebestyen of Hungary was wearing the same chartreuse color as Peggy Fleming did in her 1968 Olympic triumph, but Peggy was not having it.

Gannon: "Wearing Peggy's dress I think - the famous one..."

Fleming: "Well, it was green, it wasn't quite that bright..." Oh, Peggy. How dare they compare your elegance to the trapeze artist getup that Sebestyen was sporting! I don't blame you for cutting Gannon off.

Best Catsuit:

Carolina Kostner (see pic). It may have been the only use of a catsuit, but man, that is brave.

Best Use of Balloon-type shapes in the Costume:

Sarah Meier of Switzerland. Your program was delightful and lighter than air, so it only makes sense that you had what I interpreted as balloons making up the skirt of your costume. Still, it was a risky choice, and I can only imagine the meeting with the designer.

Designer (with French/Swiss? accent): You are so lovely! You must ave something so light and cute zee audience will zink, 'who is zat cute leetle girl? I love her. She must win!' You must ave puppies. Puppies or ice cream on zee skirt. Or balloons.

Sarah (no accent required): Um.

And balloons it was.

Worlds Update

Sorry these updates are not timely; I realized it would be nice if I had actually seen some of the performances and could give at least a little bit of insight. You all must know by now that Japan's Mao Asada is finally a world champion. I think we've all been waiting for this since she was too young to compete in 2006 Olympics and everyone was questioning how legit that competition was without her. Second place went to Italy's Carolina Kostner, and South Korea's Kim Yu-Na actually won the free skate which catapulted her into the bronze medal position. Unfortunately, I have only seen the short programs thus far, so I will give my take on that and write more on the long programs later.

Anyway, I have to say that short programs are quite interesting under this code of points because the difficulty range is so much starker. You used to see most of the big names doing the triple lutz/double toe combo, with some really going for it with a triple lutz/double loop. Now, it's all different combinations, some doing triple/triples, some triple/doubles. I don't see how the ones not doing triple/triples think they can keep up with the likes of girls like Mao Asada, who completed a triple flip/triple loop combo.

I must say, I think Carolina Kostner was a bit overscored - I was surprised she was ahead of Asada after the short program (she stepped out of her triple lutz!) but the announcers said that Asada didn't hold her spirals long enough so I guess that lost her points. Kostner did, however, land a triple flip/triple toe combination and she has some great speed and nice jumps when she lands them right. I think she got extra points for skating to "Riders on the Storm" by the Doors, which, I guess I can't really argue with cause that's kind of awesome. Although it was the muzac version.

The judges also seemed a bit unduly under the spell of infomercial goddess Kiira Korpi (will she ever live that down? Not on this blog). She is absolutely gorgeous so I can understand the distraction, but she also, she did a triple lutz/double toe and almost crashed into the boards, and her other triple was a triple LOOP!?? and I just cannot believe she was in fourth place going into the long program. It seemed like everyone was just smitten with her. I guess a pretty face (and a grown-up woman's body!) will still get you far nowadays in this sport of girls and jumping beans.

I thought Asada was great - she had so much speed on the ice it's like a breath of fresh air.

Kim Yu-Na didn't have the same speed and energy and I think she was lucky to be in "striking distance" since she wiped out on a jump.

Japan's Yukari Nakano was lovely to watch but I she's another one who was completely overscored - a triple flip/double toe combination? Is this 1988? How is that acceptable and how did she get placed in the top six for that, let alone the top three?

Reigning world champion Miki Ando was unfortunately forced to pull out of the long program due to injury, and probably received the short program placement she deserved at 8th place - she was a bit all over the place with her spins and spirals and certainly didn't seem to enjoy herself.

Another thing I noticed in these championships were the lack of amazing spirals. I don't remember any that stood out for me and many were shaky and completely unimpressive. I hope that people work on that - it was always a joy to watch in Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen's programs. I hate shaky spirals! Kostner almost had a nice spiral but she didn't hold it long enough for me to enjoy it.

As for the Americans, they were obviously an afterthought in this competition. None of them did triple/triples in the short program, although they all completed their programs without major error. I enjoyed watching all three but that's not enough to give any of them a chance to medal in a world championships anytime soon.

I should also mention that obviously when I talk about placement, it means nothing anymore, since the points are everything. But it's easier for me to type out 8th place instead of going into points values most people (myself included) won't understand out of context anyway.

Pairs Update

Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won the pairs event yesterday at the world championships. The reigning Grand Prix and European Champions basically blew the competition away, topping China's Zhang and Zhang by five points. In third were Canada's Dube and Davison.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Savchenko and Szolkowy weren't perfect. They botched their side-by-side triple salchows when he fell and she touched down, a mandatory one-point deduction. But they received seven level four marks for their elements, including a gorgeous lift where Savchenko was held aloft as if diving toward the ice.

The Germans finished with a total score of 202.86 while Zhang and Zhang scored 197.82. Savchenko and Szolkowy are the first Germans to win the pairs title since their coach, Ingo Steuer, won with partner Mandy Woetzel in 1997.

I was interested to see Ingo Steuer is the winning coach. I remember he and Woetzel (although I admit that my first memory of them is their nasty fall in the 1994 Olympics that knocked the wind out of Woetzel. He carried her off the ice...).

You Against the Dance

Well, the most important competition of the year is underway. Nope, it's not the figure skating world championships. It's "Dancing with the Stars" featuring Olympic Gold Medalist Kristi Yamaguchi!!! YAY.

Of course, I agreed with the judges on Tuesday that Kristi was the b-e-s-t. And I know she's had choreography experience and knows about posture and form and all that, but I figure, if they are going to put her in the competition then I'm going to root for her.

It was kind of funny when Kristi was trying to say how dancing is out of her comfort zone due to the heels, the pointing of the toes, etc. HA...

But, the dance was AMAZING! She is so lovely and theatrical and graceful, everything you need to be on this show. I was impressed and I hope all the fans come out of the woodwork to keep her on the show.

My thoughts on the other competitors:

Shannon Elizabeth: She was so stiff! I think she was nervous or overthinking the dance. I think if she relaxes she obviously has the body to pull off all of these dances - a little height can go a long way!

Monica Seles: Ok, so she is not a natural. All the same, the low score was pretty shocking - she was definitely in a different league than Adam Corolla and Penn but she got the lowest score of anyone (tying with Corolla for the overall low). Unfair! I'd like to see more of her just cause I like her.

Marissa Jaret Winokur: I love this girl, she was amazing in "Hairspray" on broadway, and I just found out she survived cancer when she was in her 20s so I am all the more impressed with her. I thought she was adorable - but you couldn't have paid me to figure out which dance they were doing. I'm pretty sure she has the potential to keep up with the crowd though so I'm going to blame this week on Tony's choreography.

Priscilla Presley: Very elegant, very nice. She will definitely get the "wow, how old is she?" vote, but I don't think that she was amazing or anything.

Marlee Matlin: I wonder how she does feel the rhythm and everything - I have no idea what it's like to be deaf but girl can dance better than most hearing people. I am duly impressed. The one criticism is she was a bit stiff as well, a la Shannon Elizabeth, but perhaps everyone will loosen up in coming weeks, if they last.

Well, that's it. I guess we'll see next week who America wants to boot. Get it?? Boot? That was kind of a figure skating joke but a bad one. Expect more of that.

Ladies and Dance Worlds Update

Well, I'm sure you've heard the news by now about the latest results of days one and two of the world figure skating championships, but just a quick recap and a look at the news coverage:

A lot of the hype surrounding the ice dancing competition before anyone even took the ice was the fact that European and Grand Prix Champs Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin had to withdraw due to an injury, which opened up the door for Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto to possibly win the first U.S. ice dancing gold. Unfortunately, it looks like Belbin squandered their good fortune. She had a rare fall during the cumpulsories (Argentine tango) yesterday, which caused a mandatory one point deduction and left the pair in fifth place. It's safe to say the definitive favorites to win the competition are the French couple Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, who lead the second place Canadian couple Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir by nearly 2 points.

Canadian writer Cam Cole of the National Post takes exception to what he/she regards as unfairly favorable treatment of Belbin and Agosto. I never thought I'd hear that ice dancing judges were presumed to be favoring a U.S. couple, especially when the couple is now in fifth place, but Cole does seem to argue that the couple did not lose enough points.

The 2007 bronze medallists were fifth by the end of opening day at these world championships, 5.71 points behind the leaders, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France, and 3.69 behind Canada's precocious stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who sat in second spot.

And yes, that much ground is hard to make up in the dance.

But you want to make a little bet? Somehow, some way, they'll be on the podium after the free dance Friday.

The Americans could have, should have been even deeper in the glue, if they hadn't been blatantly propped up by a set of presentation marks better than Virtue and Moir's, better than any except those of the French couple.

That must have been some artistic fall. The only other team to hit the deck, Estonia's Kristina Kiudmaa and Aleksei Trohlev, finished last among the 31 couples.

"It's sport," Moir said. Well, almost.

Ouch. I should note that the article does make some valid criticism of the anonymity of the judging system.

The ladies competition got underway today. Carolina Kostner was favored to win a medal here, but her first place finish after the short program is a bit surprising to those who expected the Japanese skaters to be atop the standings. Mao Asada and Yukari Nakano are now in second and third, respectively. And our favorite infomercial star, Finland's Kiira Korpi, is in fourth! Go buy a bed!

The Americans are doing atrociously if you go by the standings, although the reviews of Meissner's performance have been good even though she is only in ninth place right now, and if things stay this way America will only be sending two skaters to next year's worlds. Meissner didn't fall, so I guess that is a bright spot. But she didn't complete a planned triple/triple. She plans to make amends in the long program, though.

Even though I regard ninth place as disappointing, if this is what it takes to get Meissner's confidence back before the long program and the important 2009 season, then I guess I'll take it.

"I don't care at all," said Meissner, who scored 57.25 points. "I am just so happy. ... This is something I can be proud of."

Meissner said she purposely downgraded her triple-triple combination to a triple-double to ensure a clean program. But she intends to do the triple flip-triple toe loop combination in the free skate.

Still, the Americans will have to fare better in the free skate if they are to keep three spots at next year's world championships. The top two skaters must finish with a combined placement of 13 — say, fifth and eighth — to earn three spots at the 2009 worlds, where results will determine how many entries each country has at the Vancouver Olympics.

Though Meissner may be down in the standings, she said she isn't bothered by being seven points out of the lead. Fellow American Bebe Liang is in tenth place and rounding out the U.S. team, Ashley Wagner is in 11th.

Spoilers to Come!

Not really spoilers - I mean, the world championships are already going on but they haven't been broadcast in the U.S. yet. However, later today I will be giving an update on the progress of the competition and I just wanted to provide fair warning.

Let's Reinforce the Stereotypes

I am posting this infuriating New York Times article only because it is written every time Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir face off (and obviously was being held with the expectation that they would face off again in the world championships this week) and it riles me up every time. The article says that Evan Lysacek is all athletics, and Weir is all artistry, essentially. This might make a bit more sense if Lysacek could actually consistently land a quad in major competitions, or if Weir had never done so. But I don't think that either fits their pigeon hole as well as everyone wishes he would. Lysacek does have an artistry - it might not be as smooth as Weir's (although it can be at times, just not with sequins). And Weir can attack jumps just as well as Evan. I mean, even Weir has it wrong:

In the normally placid enclave of figure skating, supporting either Evan Lysacek the Athlete or Johnny Weir the Artist has become a virtual referendum on matters from skating style and personal style to sexuality itself.

“If he doesn’t want to skate to music that’s pretty and wear a pretty costume, then go rollerblade or skateboard or do one of those extreme sports,” Weir said of Lysacek.

Used to the outspoken Weir needling him from afar, Lysacek did not take the bait, and kept driving his truck down a Los Angeles highway.

“It’s a distraction,” he said, “but Johnny doesn’t affect how I skate and how I push myself. If this is what it takes for figure skating to attract some attention, I can live with that.”

Lysacek skated to "Carmen," for pete's sake! And although he played the male role, don't tell me that opera won't be best associated with females in figure skating. But Lysacek obviously sees through the ruse; he understands its better for the skaters and U.S. Figure Skating that these articles get written - and that's probably why Weir fuels the flames sometimes. The more articles, the more interest in them and that can translate to some payoff in the end for both the sport and the skaters. Or am I being too cynical? I would just expect NYT to maybe step up and find a new angle. And would it be too much to ask that I don't have to hear Weir call himself "princessy" anymore. Ok, enough venting, we'll obviously be hearing much more of this as Weir and Lysacek respectively plie and barrel (apparently) toward the 2010 Olympics so I'd better get used to it...

UPDATE: I said above that Weir has landed a quad in competition. This article says he hasn't - I think I was was counting the quad he (slightly) two-footed in the nationals as a landed jump but I am guessing he didn't get credit for it. Sorry for the error!

Rough Start for U.S. Skaters

Looks like things aren't going so smoothly for some U.S. skaters in their arrival to the World Championships, which start tomorrow, according to ESPN.com.

Kimmie Meissner arrived just in time for her practice Monday, thanks to delayed flight. At least she got there. Ice dancer Brent Bommentre's luggage is still nowhere to be found after going missing during his flight from Philadelphia on Friday, leaving him without his costumes and his skates.

"It's as if it doesn't exist," said U.S. team leader John Millier, who has been keeping tabs on efforts to track down the bag. "They are keeping their chin up and laughing about it."

They don't have much choice with the world championships beginning Tuesday with the compulsory dance. Bommentre's roommate sent him a second pair of skates, and they were delivered Sunday. But the skates are never-before used and with the factory edges, and it it can take some skaters weeks to get used to a new pair of boots and edges.

As for the costumes, "the coach and skaters are trying to be creative," Millier said.

The pairs and ice dancing competitions start tomorrow. The ladies skate their short program Wednesday, while the men start latest - Friday.

The competition doesn't appear to be televised until Friday night - see the schedule here. It will be airing mainly on ESPN, with some Saturday programming on ABC.

Blast from the Past

As the world championships begin this week, here's a great article from the Vancouver Sun taking a look at the quad, 20 years after Kurt Browning landed the first one. I feel like the quad took about ten years to hit its stride - it wasn't really until the 1998 Olympics that it became a game-changer and by four years later that it was known as a must-have jump to actually win the men's competition.

That all may be changing thanks to the new scoring systems, says Browning:

But it has remained an elusive, unpredictable weapon -- and in the new scoring system, where points are awarded for the quality of each element and jump, not just the number of revolutions, it has become less of a guarantee of good marks than a tie-breaker, if all else is equal.
"It feels like the quad, this year, isn't as important as it has been in other years, that's just kind of the vibe out there," Browning said. "The CBC was showing me some stats on how many quads have been landed this year. Not very many. I just think that maybe the new system is downplaying the quad enough that the reward is not worth the risk.
"The stats they showed me made me go, 'Wow, this is perfect for guys
like Jeffrey Buttle and Patrick Chan. If the quad is just not happening for guys
out there this year, then this is your chance.'"

Lysacek out of Worlds

Reigning U.S. National Champion and World medalist Evan Lysacek has withdrawn from next week's world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden , the Chicago Tribune reports. Lysacek injured himself in practice on Wednesday. Lysacek reportedly broke a skate blade last week and has been repeatedly falling on his triple axel while trying to find a workable replacement blade.

According to the article:

Lysacek said x-rays taken in an emergency room showed nothing broken. He will be replaced by Jeremy Abbott, fourth finisher at the U.S. Championships. That means the U.S. men's team in Sweden will have two senior world meet debutants, Abbott and Stephen Carriere, and no one who has won a world medal in the past.

Its leader, three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir, was 8th at last year's worlds. The finishes of the top two men must add up to 13 points or fewer for the United States to have three men's entrants at the 2009 worlds.

That seems unlikely.

News From Detroit (?)

Sasha Cohen has an interview in the Detroit Free Press today about her indecision on whether to continue skating competitively. I know she’s currently trying to make it as an actress, while also performing in "Stars on Ice," but we know how well the acting thing is going for some other former figure skaters (I'll refrain from naming names). I have never seen Cohen’s acting work, but I have to say that whenever she is anywhere near the ice, I’m interested. She is such a unique skater that I’m sure audiences would appreciate her whenever she competes but I wonder if she’d be able to match the technical prowess that would be needed to keep up with the current crop of skaters.

And here’s a Detroit News article (wow, the Detroit media is all over figure skating today) about efforts by Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto to appeal to larger audiences. It mentions their recent use of Justin Timberlake music as a way to draw in a younger crowd. The article also takes a look at the major competitors for the ice dance title at the world championships.

Tarasova Voted to Hall of Fame

Tatiana Tarasova, one of the world’s most well known skating coaches, will be inducted into the World Figure Skating hall of fame at next week’s world championships. Tarasova’s list of Olympic gold medalists include Ilia Kulik, Alexei Yagudin, pairs skaters Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitzev, and ice dancers Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko. Tarasova has also spent time as coach of Sasha Cohen and Shizuka Arakawa, silver and gold medalists at the Torino Olympics.

In honor of Tarasova’s feat, I have linked to one of my favorite Tarasova-coached performances, Klimova and Ponomarenko’s gold-medal winning ice dance.

There are never enough toe pick jokes

I would be remiss if I did not remind you that there is a Cutting Edge marathon this weekend ABC Family Channel. The original "Cutting Edge" is on Friday at 8 p.m., and the second is on Saturday at 8 p.m., while on Sunday, you can watch all three movies, starting at 4 p.m., with the newest movie premiering at 8 pm. I personally could not make it through much of the "Cutting Edge 2," but "Cutting Edge 3" is really crazy because - get this - a GIRL plays the hockey star-turned figure skater! NO WAY! Ladies, look how far we've come.

Anyway, the first "Cutting Edge" is always worth a watch, and if you just happen to keep the channel put for the sequels, I won't tell anyone.

More on Katarina

I guess we don't have to worry about not seeing Katarina Witt anymore now that she's retiring. I was at the gym this morning and saw this amazing infomercial for "Leg Magic." Now, as helpful as this tool looks (or do I mean, as likely to cause a pulled groin muscle as this tool looks?), I find it hard to believe that Witt needed it to get in shape. I mean, she skates (or skated?) all the time! But I do appreciate a good infomercial and she looks very pretty in the video.

After seeing this, I wanted to check out what other figure skaters have been on the infomercial circuit (hey! If it's good enough for Suzanne Somers...). The lovely Peggy Fleming apparently hocked a product appropriately called the Figure 8 which received a not so shining review here.

Even the beloved Scott Hamilton got into the mix with the Ab Dolly. Have never seen his abs so I cannot comment on whether he's right that it's no gimmick.

If you're wondering what the most popular figure skating infomercial is (and I know you are), Google would have you believe it is none of the above. Rather, the most hits come from this bed infomercial with Finnish skater Kiira Korpi.

Witt Has Final Performance

The Associated Press is reporting that two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt has completed her show career with one last performance as Carmen, an ice role she made famous during the 1988 Olympics.

The final performance was part of a farewell tour that ended Tuesday night.

Witt on Tuesday showed a video montage of her career that dated back to when longtime coach Jutta Mueller first began to groom the five-year-old for ice skating glory. In her show, she revisited another famous routine to the Pete Seeger folk song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone."

Witt performed an arrangement of the peace song at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, during a short-lived comeback in competition. The music was directed toward the people of war-torn Sarajevo – the site of her first Olympic gold medal in 1984.

Witt said leaving the ice for the last time was easier than expected.

"I'm doing well," she said. "Not as many tears fell as I maybe feared."

Witt has skated in her own show, “Witt and Boitano Skating,” as well as other shows such as “Stars on Ice.”

If anyone has any video or photos of Witt's final show, feel free to send them in and I'll post to the blog.

Did the Right Skater Win?

An article on the Boston Globe's Boston.com says chatter is continuing about scores being calculated incorrectly at January's U.S. National Figure Skating Championships, in which Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir tied at the end of the free skate. Lysacek was awarded the gold medal because he won the free skate. However, as USA Today reported last month, it appears the program components scores may have been rounded wrong, and Weir may truly own the title with a hundredth of a point edge:

... instead of having the trimmed scores for the long program averaged, factored by two, and rounded off to two places beyond the decimal point, the scores were rounded, then factored. Had they been computed correctly, Weir would have regained his crown by a hundredth of a point.

US Figure Skating says it was simply using the IceCalc software provided by the ISU and that its own rule is just a basic description of the scoring that isn't meant to include all elements.

USA Today reported last month that U.S. Figure Skating contacted the International Skating Union about its IceCalc software and that the ISU "clarified" how the software interprets scores. However, the Boston.com article states that the rules will be clarified at the ISU's summer congress.

For Weir's part, he put out a February journal entry addressing his second place win as well as the computer "backlash":

I never thought there would be a tie in this system, but I guess I should expect the unexpected. I accepted that I was second. I'm not going to pretend to be able to outsmart a computer, so I'm fine in knowing I won a silver medal, not a gold. In this system, the computer knows best. I won't say it isn't crazy though.

...I want to thank everyone who questioned the result. I heard through the grapevine and from USA Today that there were human calculators trying to figure how the results were possible and criticizing the credibility of the computer. I am fine with the result, and I think everyone should be. If not a champion this time, work hard and be a sure champion next time.

It seems unlikely that there will be another tie, but never say never. And a computer is only as right as it is progammed to be (and sometimes not even then...). That said, perhaps ISU should do some more checking on the software to allay fears that it is not calculating scores in accordance with its own rules.

Meissner Still Shaky

Things continue to appear shaky for Kimmie Meissner, on the ice and off. She skated in the World Figure Skating Send-Off Exhibition at the University of Delaware this weekend, and according to Delaware Online, it was rough going. Meissner reportedly had two falls in the show. It was her first public skating appearance since announcing she was leaving UD (where she had been training since 2000 and is currently also enrolled as a student) and her coach, Pam Gregory, to train with Richard Callaghan in Florida. Callaghan is famed for coaching Tara Lipinski and Todd Eldredge to multiple titles, including Lipinski's Olympic gold in 1998. The article said it's unclear whether Meissner is leaving UD for good, although the deal with Callaghan is currently only through the world championships.

Meissner captured the 2006 World Championships at the age of 16 only to fall to seventh place at this year's nationals, and a disappointing last place finish at the recent Grand Prix final. Callaghan is expected to work with Meissner on her jumping. According to the LA Times:

Callaghan, who has coached skaters to Olympic gold, three world titles and eight U.S. titles, has observed Meissner's problems from a distance. He said they spoke about a collaboration only after nationals.

"I can see in a skater's eyes whether they are going to be successful or not, and she looks like she has too many things going through her head," he said.

We'll see if he has the answers Meissner is looking for at the world championships later this month.

World Juniors Update

15-year-old Rachael Flatt, the U.S. national ladies silver medalist who was too young to qualify for the senior world championships, pulled off a win in last weekend's World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She triumphed against more heralded fellow Americans Caroline Zhang, who took the silver, and U.S. National Champion Mirai Nagasu. Nagasu was the leader after the short program but she struggled in the long and ended up third.

Zhang, the reigning world junior champ, lost by just .35. Flatt is making a habit of coming from behind by winning free skates; she also won the free skate at nationals, although the performance wasn't enough to beat Nagasu's mammoth lead from the short program.

The USA also captured the gold in men's (Adam Rippon) and ice dance (Samuelson/Bates), with Russians Krasilnikova/Bezmaternikh winning pairs. The senior worlds will be taking place later this month.