Olympic Petition Fairness

2004 Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Paul Hamm has broken a bone in his right hand, and will have to miss the Olympic trials next month and hopefully petition his way onto the Olympic team. This situation is calling up comparisons to both Michelle Kwan's and Nancy Kerrigan's successful petitions onto the Olympic figure skating teams, in 2006 and 1994, respectively.

Gwen Knapp, of the San Francisco Chronicle, argues that Hamm and U.S.A. Gymnastics will have to deal with "leftover heat" from Kwan's petition and subsequent withdrawal from the games. Kwan petitioned herself onto the Olympic team for the 2006 Winter Games in Torino because she could not compete due to a groin injury. She was selected for the team, and re-injured herself shortly after the Opening Ceremonies. She was replaced by Nationals bronze medalist Emily Hughes, sister of 2002 Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes.

I didn't realize there was "leftover heat" from Kwan's situation, although many, including Sports Illustrated's E.M. Swift, argued that Kwan shouldn't have been let on the team at all:

Strained groins are notoriously slow to heal and easily re-injured, which is exactly what happened to Kwan when she attempted a triple flip 15 minutes into her first Turin practice.

While the late addition of Hughes -- who finished third at Nationals but was bumped to make room for Kwan -- might be viewed as a wrong righted, it is still a wrong and reflects badly on the USFSA and its petition process. Hughes has been given short shrift in what should have been the experience of a lifetime, missing the thrill of marching in Opening Ceremonies, of being able to spend the entire three weeks in the Olympic Village, of having the free time to see other Olympic events. Now she has to contend with hurried travel plans and a late adjustment to jet lag. Skaters do best when they're calm and relaxed, and whatever Hughes' Olympic experience might prove to be, it definitely won't be one that's relaxed.

Obviously, the whole situation was ironic, since Nancy Kerrigan petitioned for what would have been Kwan's spot after the 1994 attack kept her out of nationals that year.

Knapp essentially argues that it's not fair to penalize USA Gymnastics for the failure of the Kwan situation. I suppose I would agree, since they are obviously two different sports and every situation is different. Knapp's column quotes USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny emphasizing the team aspect of Olympic gymnastics as a reason that more athletes must be considered than just the highest-scoring at the trials (for example, one athlete may be a floor exercise specialist, while another is superb at bars, etc.). Knapp calls the Kwan situation a disaster, but I can't tell if she is definitely completely against the idea of petitions, and she does deem Kerrigan " the most defensible injury exemption of the bunch."

Knapp also brings up the discrepancy between sports judged by humans and other sports. For example, she points out that if swimmer Michael Phelps were injured and could not compete at trials, there would be no way for him to petition his way onto the Olympic team.

These are all interesting points, as is Swift's charge that "in granting Kwan's petition the USFSA forgot its most fundamental charge: To promote fair competition and to treat all its athletes equally." I do wonder about the fairness of the petition process whenever it comes up - but then how can you argue against the Kerrigan petition? And Kwan was still near the top of her sport in 2006. Although I didn't think she had a chance at the gold unless other skaters faltered, she could definitely have challenged for the silver or bronze. Add to that all that Kwan has given to the sport over the years, (vs. the alternative of a skater with limited international experience) and it's not hard to see why the committee made the choice to grant Kwan's petition. However, I think Kerrigan and Kwan were very special cases, and I'm not sure how quick the selection committee would be to grant a similar waiver to another skater. By taking Kwan's history and Kerrigan's circumstances into consideration, does that mean the process itself is inherently unfair? I don't know.

EUROVISION!

I’d like to apologize for being so late in writing about the Eurovision song contest. I've seen dozens of articles about Evgeny Pluschenko performing in this contest and I couldn’t tell if it was that big a deal or not, but now I realize, it’s very much kind of a big deal.

Apparently, the contest has been around since 1956. It’s an annual contest held among members of the European broadcasting union. Each member station chooses a song and singer to represent its country in the competition. Each country has a set of votes, which can be decided by televoting or other means. The most votes wins.

Anyway, the reason you are reading about the contest on this site (finally) is that apparently, Russia just won its first Eurovision title. And Evgeny Pluschenko’s skating accompanied singer Dima Bilan’s winning performance of the song “Believe!.”

This is no amateur singing contest, mind you. The winning song was produced by Timbaland, according to The Guardian.

Congratulations to Russia! And congrats to Pluschenko – he snagged himself an incredible amount of exposure from that one performance. You can check it out here.

From what I can tell, Pluschenko is not really performing on a lot of ice, so he's basically waving his arms dramatically and kind of jumping around (although that picture is pretty impressive). Still, it appears to have been effective.

Joubert Working with Platov

2007 World Champion Brian Joubert is working with two-time Olympic gold medalist Evgeny Platov for choreography. According to IceNetwork, Joubert is currently in Princeton with Platov. He worked with Platov earlier when Platov was part of Tatiana Tarasova's coaching team.
Platov said Joubert approached him at worlds in Gothenburg about doing the choreography. The two are currently on the ice at the Princeton Sports Center creating both short and long programs.

"He's picking up everything so fast," said Platov, who accepts only a small number of choreography requests. "I'm not that person who will be making a hundred programs a year. I want to do less, but more quality, especially with unique people like Brian and my own students (British ice dancers Sinead and John Kerr).

The drama here is that Joubert had been working with Kurt Browning. Word on the forums is that Browning actually was the one to tell Joubert he was too busy to work together extensively, but I of course cannot find the suppposed french article that came from (feel free to post in comments!).

Plan Ahead Much?

Spokane 2010 U.S. National Championships tickets are going on sale this Saturday. Yes, that is correct, according to NNCN.com. I unfortunately don't know what my life will be like next month, let alone in two years, so I cannot buy tickets just yet.

Tickets can be secured at http://www.spokane2010.com/, or by calling (800) 325-SEAT, starting May 31.

Go get 'em!

Proposed Changes to International Judging Standards

Per a link at FSUniverse forums (free registration required) and Ice Skating International, here is a list of a "group of international coaches'" proposed list of changes to figure skating's International Judging Standards (IJS).

I'm not sure where to find a list of the judges who participated, but Ice Skating International states the proposals were recently sent to the ISU singles and pairs committees. Here are the first proposals:

1. Abolish secret judging.

Secret judging has proven to be, perhaps, the greatest disappointment in the history of the ISU. The problem it was intended to solve is a serious one, in need of firm action, but secrecy has not accomplished it’s intended goal: to eliminate judging misconduct. It is perceived by the public, and many in the skating family, as a way to hide intrigues or deals among the judges and is detrimental to the credibility of the sport. It is unfair to the skaters and to the judges as well. Secret judging has proven not to be the cure needed, and has done harm instead.

2. Abolish the random draw of the judges.

Studies have proven that there is a wide a spread of marks and consequent placements among the judges, even among the top five competitors. Depending on which judges have been selected, the result could vary from first to fifth very easily. This is not fair to the skaters. It is like a coin toss.

The random draw is another flaw of the system, especially when it does not guarantee a fairer result but is only used to make secret judging even more secret!

The only way to compensate for this is by using the marks of all the judges on the panels, deleting the highest and the lowest. To promote transparency show the list of judges in the protocols.

I put these both here because I believe the integrity of the judging (in fact, any judging) system relies on transparency. Many people could probably see the current judging system and its complete anonymity as a way to cover-up any issues like the judging scandal of 2002. I would much rather see both the highest and lowest scores included than see a random selection of anonymous judges.

There are several other suggestions meant to increase the creativity and excitement of the programs. For example, there is a proposal to allow one sequence of the competitor's choice in both the short and the long program, and spiral sequences and spread eagles are offered as examples. I have a post coming up about the evolution of the spiral sequence so I am very interested in seeing that element return to the way it was before the new code of points (more effective and more attractive for the audience, in my opinion).

You should definitely check out the full list, but here is another suggestion that caused some contention on the forum:

11. Unify the base value of the Lutz and the Flip jumps into a single jump.

In view of the never ending controversy over the starting edge of the Lutz and the flip jumps it is proposed of getting rid of the take-off edge requirements for these jumps. This is not unprecedented in the world of figure skating. The "Toe Walley" used to be a "real" jump and now it is just the same as a toe-loop. The skater will be allowed to take off from the inside, the outside, or the flat of the blade. A competitor will be allowed to attempt this Flip/Lutz jump twice, following the current repetition rule for jumps.

As you might imagine, this suggestion has been quite the point of debate on the forum boards. I personally would not support it, and it would probably help if any figure skaters out there chimed in, but I have always been under the impression that the takeoff edge is what makes the lutz much more difficult than the flip. It is much more likely that skaters screw up the lutz takeoff than the flip one. I don't think skaters should be judged the same for doing both jumps, and I also see how this could be the death knell for the lutz (why bother trying the more difficult jump when it won't rate you any more points)?

I see the issue from a spectators' point of view; many casual spectators don't know the difference between a lutz and a flip and it's confusing for viewers when a competitor loses points on their lutzes and someone else wins a competition despite not skating as well overall. Still, I would hate to see the lutz and the flip lose their distinctions. I also hate the walley comparison, but probably because the walley was mostly phased out by the time I watched skating so I have no love for it. It seems fairly simple compared with most of the other jumps, so I cannot imagine it being compared to the flip/lutz. Although perhaps when it was given the same credit as the toe loop, people were arguing that the toe loop was so much harder than the walley. Who knows? I just think this is a pretty dramatic suggestion.

How Did I Miss This?

Add another to the actor/skater mix: Irina Slutskaya. According to FigureSkatingMystery.com, the Olympic bronze and silver medalist recently made her theatrical debut in “Antigone Forever," a play.

Here is a link to some pictures of Slutskaya working.

According to the translated article, Slutskaya said:

I am also thankful to my partners who gave me a lot of help and support. I think that they saw that I was not slacking, but put in a lot of hard work. I also understood that acting on stage was hard work, which requires a lot of physical and emotional strengths. Now I would like to try myself in the movies.

Everyone wants to be in pictures!

Memorial Day Rundown

Hello all, here is a roundup of some stories that don't necessarily merit their own full blog posts:

Postbulletin has a quick interview with Sasha Cohen. Nothing new here but if you are a fan you might be interested.

Healthcare discount program HealthSaver has teamed up with Peggy Fleming, who says, " "The key to controlling weight is to eat fewer calories while
increasing physical activity." You heard it here first (hmm. Maybe not.): eat less, work out more.

Scott Hamilton paid a visit to the Oberlin (Ohio) Boys and Girls Club to hand out certificates and take questions from the kids. Sadly, some of the boys and girls did not know who he was. They pointed this out in the article on more than one occasion. Still, it sounds like the students enjoyed speaking with Scott.

Let's Talk About Skating!

Now that I have all that gossip and non-skating news out of the way, let's talk skating! Susan from Lifeskate has been kind enough to list out all the U.S. Qualifying Competitions for 2009, so take a look if you'd like to attend any.

Warrant out for Grishuk's Attacker

You read here that gold medal ice dancer Pasha (Oksana) Grishuk was slipped a drug similar to a date-rape drug a few months ago. There is now a warrant out for the arrest of person suspected of drugging Grishuk. He is also accused in civil lawsuits of defrauding investors of $20 million. The man, James R. Halstead, pleads innocence.

Reached by telephone, Halstead called the complaint "ridiculous" but would not discuss the allegations.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said Thursday. "I've got enough troubles in my life already."

In the early 1990s, Halstead and another man were charged with bilking investors of more than $1 million in a scheme to sell crude oil and German bank shares. He eventually pleaded guilty to five felony counts and was put on probation, court records show. His conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor when he paid $150,000 in restitution.

Tonya Update

Newsweek has a writeup about Harding and her new book. Here's an excerpt:

Understandably, the blogosphere is suspicious of Harding's true motives. "Translation: I'm broke and quickly fading into obscurity," offered one blogger on the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site. "This story makes me want to go to Disneyland," added another. Other critics recall Harding's many desperate moves to make a buck, including boxing with Paula Jones (of Bill Clinton fame) on a Fox TV reality show.

"If you publish a book like that, you probably need to do it for financial reasons," said former gold medalist Brian Boitano, who was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame last month. "If people are going to read it, they have to read it for the entertainment value, and not go by every word as the gospel truth. She struggles with being taken seriously."

Harding knows as well as anyone that there's no such thing as bad publicity, and she's prepared to spend the next several weeks fending off skeptical questions from people "entitled to their own opinion" as she promotes her new book. In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Harding struggled the most with this conflicting set of circumstances: if she knew nothing about the assault on Kerrigan until after it happened, why was her ex-husband so desperate to keep her quiet that he'd rape and threaten to kill her?

"You'll have to read the book," Harding said, explaining that it was a long time ago and that she has trouble remembering what she knew back then. "It was things I'd heard from other people."

Here's a recent interview on Dan Patrick's ESPN show.

Also, I don't think I mentioned before that Harding is apparently working on "The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest," a crime show. The article says it's on Court TV, but I think that channel changed to another name TruTV, so I'm not sure who the fact checker is. But what is her qualification for being on that show, other than the fact that she may or may not have helped plan an attack on a fellow skater and definitely obstructed justice? I guess notoriety has its perks. After looking at the list of other commentators (Danny Bonaduce, Amy Fisher, etc.), I get the picture.

Athlete Reacts to Stojko's Comments

Adam van Koeverden, a Canadian kayaker scheduled to compete in the Beijing Olympics later this year, has called skater Elvis Stojko's calls for athletes to boycott the games "ridiculous," according to The Canadian Press.

"I don't think going to China to race in my kayak means I'm signing on as a member of their parliament or agreeing with any of their foreign policies," Van Koeverden said. "I definitely think the Olympics should be (in China), it's produced more opportunities for dialogue and discussion and that's always been the biggest driving force for change."

Van Koeverden, one of Canada's top hopes for a medal in Beijing, met with the media at the Burloak Canoe Club on Thursday in a brief break from a gruelling training and competition schedule heading into the Olympics. In a wide-ranging conversation with reporters, the outspoken paddler voiced his frustration over comments by former figure skater Elvis Stojko, who suggested athletes boycott Beijing.

"I just think if these were (Stojko's) Olympics, he probably would have moderated his comments a little bit more," Van Koeverden said. "I respect him, I respect his comments, everybody has a right to their opinion. But I question whether that would be his opinion if he was on his way to get his gold medal. Especially after two silvers."

Sounds like van Koeverden is pretty upset. He even pointed out that he's seen Stojko skate in Canada before. van Koeverden already has a gold and bronze medal from competing in Athens in 2004. van Koeverden apparently wrote his opinions on his blog (I could not find the post to link to, feel free to post in comments).

Van Koeverden's coach, Scott Oldershaw, was part of the 1980 Canadian team but he did not get to go to the Olympics due to the boycott.

Start Your Engines!

Everyone's favorite dancing queen, Kristi Yamaguchi, will wave the flag to start this Sunday's Indianapolis 500. According to Indy500.com, she's the first female honorary starter in the race's history!

Unfortunately, Kristi is a last-minute replacement for boxer Floyd Maywether (sorry, had his named completely misspelled earlier), who recently lost his uncle. That's another DWTS connection; the last one (I think!) is that last season's winner, Helio Castroneves, is racing on Sunday.

Dubreuil and Lauzon Retire

Per the Canadian Press, Canadian ice dancers Patrice Lauzon and Marie-France Dubreuil announced their retirement this week after a 13-year-career. The pair have twice captured silver medals at the world championships and are five-time Canadian national champions.

They began considering retirement in 2006, a season that included a silver medal at the world championships and successes at the Canadian championships and Four Continents, but also featured an unlucky streak of injuries.

A terrible fall in the original dance forced their withdrawal at the Turin Olympics that year and left Dubreuil with an injured right hip and lower back, and she later hurt her right knee and ankle.

The rough season gave them pause to consider quitting.

But with the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and the chance to compete at home hovering on the horizon, they soldiered on.

"After the Turin games, we probably would've let it go right away," Lauzon said. "But having the Games in Canada is very attractive, it's quite amazing to do the Games in your own country."

But they wound up having a difficult season.

"It was very hard for us to train, and we barely made it to the end of the season ... mentally it was very, very tough," Lauzon said.

It's always sad when injuries cut careers short, especially when the pair has enjoyed so much success in recent years. There's no reason to think they'll stop skating, however. They have recently completed touring with "Stars on Ice," and they're also doing some coaching and choreography. Oh, and they're getting married in August, so congratulations to them!

Never Gonna Dance Again (the Way I Danced with Kristi Yamaguchi)

YAY!!!!! Kristi won. Of course, she should have won. Both Jason and Cristian grew on me and I loved the camaraderie the past two days, but I was very happy that the very best contestant ever to be on this show was able to win.

Kristi and Jason made the final two and Kristi repeated her jive, which up until last night was my favorite performance of the season. She didn't let up in her very last performance, getting another perfect 30 to make her final score an amazing 90. Jason's final dance, the quickstep, was very good and extremely energetic, and I was touched by his emotion at the end of the show. I will definitely be rooting for him to do well on the football field.

I'm so happy that the lovely Kristi Yamaguchi was able to become a household name once again, all because of her amazing talents on the dance floor. She never said a harsh word about her other competitors and she never had to. I hope this opens the door to whatever she wants to do from here on out and if it brought even a little attention to the sport of figure skating because they liked Kristi, then that will have been icing on the cake...

I Won't Dance (Unless it's with Kristi Yamaguchi)

WOW. That was some dancing going on out there on "Dancing with the Stars" tonight. First, the Cha cha faceoff, the first of its kind on the show. Cristian was first, and I actually enjoyed his performance, which doesn't often happen with him. I think this dance is a very good one for him, it didn't even matter to me how slouchy he was (although one of the judges - Carrie Ann - finally noticed!). Jason and Edyta were next, and unfortunately this is NOT one of Jason Taylor's strengths. He is better at the elegant dances, not the ones that require hip movements and more of a rhythm.

And then there was Kristi. First of all, she crimped her hair. The girl deserves a mirror-ball trophy simply for that fact. Second of all, she kissed Bruno, proving that she will do whatever it takes to win. You have to admire that...right? Her dance was also much more complicated than the other two, and she was so animated! I loved it.

Freestyle came next, and Kristi was first. I don't know who dressed her this evening, but I must say that apparently the only way to make Kristi Yamaguchi look bad is to take away the heels and put her in sequined pinstripes. Despite the fashion no-no, the freestyle was AMAZING. I don't think I was able to blink, I was so busy watching all the lifts and all the complicated moves.

Jason Taylor looked so slow compared with Kristi, but the lifts he did were very impressive. And I appreciated how willing he and Edyta were to strip for their dance.

Cristian's freestyle seemed pretty cheesy, even for this show. Maybe it was all of his faces. I think the all of one-armed lifts he did were very exciting though.

In conclusion, Kristi Yamaguchi has owned this competition from beginning to end, and given me an excuse to watch the show again. For these reasons, and the aforementioned crimped hair, I hope she wins. GO KRISTI!

And the Award Goes to...

Susan at Lifeskate has highlighted this year's Edi awards, announced by the Professional Skaters Association in the latest issue of Professional Skater Magazine.

Some notable winners:

Best Ladies Performance: Mirai Nagasu "I Got Rhythm" short program
Best Men's Performance: Adam Rippon "Moonlight Sonata" free skate
st Pairs Performance: Keauna McLaughlin & Rockne Brubaker, "Romeo & Juliet" free skate
Best Dance Performance: Meryl Davis & Charlie White, "Kalinka" original dance

For more about the awards or who won, head to Lifeskate or U.S. Figure Skating.

Oh, the Places Kiira Korpi Will Go

Per Kiira-Korpi.net, Ms. Korpi has graduated from secondary (high?) school. She is also aiming to study economics next. I find it pretty impressive that she will be pursuing higher education along with competitive skating, because she must already spend so many hours practicing skating already and economics is a pretty tough subject!

The skater is aiming for Tampere School of Economics and the entrance exams are held in June.

- I find the field of study interesting and my friends and sister have recommended it. I want to focus fully on skating, but studying is a good balance for sport.

Korpi knows that nobody can be a competitive athelete for ever.

- Hopefully in ten years I have a good skating career behind me and a happy work and family life ahead.

Korpi will be celebrating her student cap at home, guests are arriving on both saturday and sunday. After the festivities hard work continues: Korpi’s skating programs are renewed and later in summer she has training camps in Estonia and Sweden.

Congratulations to Korpi!

Stojko Speaks Out

As you may have surmised by now, this is not just a figure skating blog, but also a figure skater blog. So any time some famous skater does something, we'll likely let you know. To that end, three-time skating world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist Elvis Stojko of Canada is speaking out about this summer's Beijing Olympics. He wants the Canadian government to pressure China on its human rights record.

From OttawaCitizen.com:

"Things have to change. We want to let the people know, the Chinese people know, that we support them," he said at a Queen's Park rally. Mr. Stojko, the winner of silver medals at the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics, called on Canada to "make a stand" on the issue.

China's human rights record was a pretty big issue back in 2001 when Beijing was selected for the games and that was why a lot of people were lobbying against them as the pick. I suppose everyone was waiting around to see if the awarding of the games would cause the country to change its ways, but I feel that at some point between the awarding of the games and before the year that the actual games are going to occur, people might have noticed that things weren't getting better. Oh, well, that is completely an aside and doesn't have much to do with Stojko. I guess the fact that the Olympics are in the news this year is giving people more of a platform to say something, and it probably wouldn't have been paid much attention to in the last few years when the Olympics were still awhile away (in fact, all of the same people may very well have been speaking out and protesting and I may have just missed it because it lacked the news coverage).

UPDATE!

Looks like AHN has a more specific Stojko article - he actually calls on the athletes to make a stand:

Speaking before protesters in Ontario in the afternoon of May 17, Stojko said the athletes should "make a stand" about human rights and he said he would consider boycotting the games if he was still competing in athletics. The rally, which was joined in by 200 people, was in protest to the human rights record of China.

Figure Skaters and the Acting Bug

I recently saw something written about the movie "Moondance Alexander," in which Sasha Cohen has a role. It was actually released last year in North America, but I don't remember seeing any commercials or anything. It got me thinking about figure skaters who try to break into acting. So far, it seems, the results haven't been too stellar. Why can't figure skaters seem to really make it in the acting world, where even someone like Paris Hilton seems able to get consistent (albeit terrible) film roles?

I understand why anyone would want to be an actor, and acting and emoting are definitely skills that work to a figure skater's advantage on the ice, so it does seem an almost natural jump to try your hand at acting if you can.

The way I see it, there are two types of acting for figure skaters. The first type, which doesn't really count, is "playing yourself." Now, although that's not technically acting, anyone who has watched "The Hills" on MTV knows that oftentimes, when people play themselves, they are definitely acting. I would also include in this category the cameo, which, even though it entails playing a role, is essentially a wink-wink version of playing yourself.

The "playing yourself" phenomenon has been seen often with skating stars, and no example is better than 2007's "Blades of Glory," which featured Brian Boitano, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Sasha Cohen, Peggy Fleming and Scott Hamilton. (I think I got them all). Tara Lipinski and Sasha Cohen, both aspiring actresses, have also played themselves in a variety of television shows.

The next category would obviously include "serious acting," or playing actual parts. Tara Lipinski has been trying to break into the serious acting category for years now. I've seen her on a few television shows, including "Still Standing," and "The Young and the Restless." She was fine, but I can't imagine she would have been cast for any reason other than name recognition.

It appears name recognition can help and hurt skating actor wannabes. It can obviously help them get cast in bit parts and guest starring roles in television show ratings stunts, but I'm sure it's a pretty big hurdle to get over when you're trying to establish yourself as a legitimate actor. However, I feel like in that industry, you really do need a foot in the door any way you can get it.

I saw that Tara Lipinski's last credit on her IMDB listing was from 2006, which surprised me because I know she was quite serious about acting. I tried to check out her website to see what her journal entries say, but it's under construction.

Sasha Cohen is also serious about this acting thing, and I recall that she was taking an intensive acting course last summer. She also had a role in "Bratz" the movie last year, but I don't see any upcoming films.

I remember after the '98 Olympics Pasha (formerly Oksana Grishuk) was moving to Los Angeles to break into Hollywood. As you can see from her IMDB page, that never really took off.

The other Oksana, Baiul, has also made a fair career of playing herself, and has "acted" in a couple of other projects, including playing a commentator in "The Cutting Edge 2."

Scott Hamilton has often played himself, and also has a habit of doing voiceovers, which seems appropriate with that unmistakable (and quite excitable) voice of his. Katarina Witt has also been on a few television shows, and often played herself. She has been on a lot of German television as well.

Other than that, I don't really see anyone who has been able to make that crossover from skating to (serious) acting. I wonder if it will go better for Sasha Cohen or someone else in the future...

Anyway, let me know if I've missed a very successful skater-actor, or if you can remember your favorite skater cameo, or acting work by a skater. I seem to remember a Mighty Ducks 2 one-second cameo by Kristi Yamaguchi that made me happy.

The Tonya Tapes

Lifeskate has a transcription of Tonya Harding's Today Show interview yesterday. She was promoting The Tonya Tapes, which is actually a book. Not a VHS tape collection. However, the book is a series of recordings of Tonya describing her life. Anyway, check out the interview.

Update:

Here is a link to the interview at MSNBC, and another article discussing the book at International Herald Tribune (it includes excerpts from an Associated Press interview with Harding).

Harding's whole trajectory has been so disturbing to watch. For some reason it seems almost sadder to see it juxtaposed with the week's earlier happy news about Nancy Kerrigan and her growing family. Not exactly sure why that is, but I am guessing it's because unfortunately for me (like so many others) it is still hard to hear about either Kerrigan or Harding without wondering about the other.

Congratulations to Nancy and Family!!!

According to People, Nancy Kerrigan has given birth to her third child. It's a girl!!!

Kerrigan, who announced her pregnancy in January, gained only 25 lbs. with this baby, a pound less than she gained with Brian and two pounds more than she put on with Matthew.

As for what to call the little girl, "I think that is the hardest job, to pick a name for somebody," says Kerrigan. "We are not very good at that."

Kerrigan has two sons with her husband Jerry Solomon. They're Matthew, 11, and Brian, 3. Congratulations to the family!

A New Informercial King?

Evan Lysacek has announced that he signed with Total Gym (thanks FSuniverse!). Apparently the deal includes a television commercial!

Does this mean that Lysacek will join the pantheon of figure skating infomercial stars!!!?? Well, let's just hear what he had to say about the product:

"I am so proud to be a spokesperson for the Total Gym," he said. "It's a product that I trust and believe in, which is why it's a part of my daily training routine. I have seen the positive results of the Total Gym first hand. As an Olympic athlete, I have access to the best trainers and equipment out there, so I can really appreciate the quality and versatility. I'm honored to be joining the list of athletes and celebrities that endorse the Total Gym.''

If that's not infomercial talk, I don't know what is! I can't wait to see it.

Gotta Dance! (With Kristi Yamaguchi)

Just a quick note that I am sorry Mario wasn't there this week. He was the only one aside from Kristi who was actually attempting difficult choreography and the week would have been better with him.

Now - to the dancing! I thought Jason Taylor's foxtrot was nice n' easy, like most of his dances. Emphasis on the easy. Not that I could do it, but it wasn't that impressive. His second dance, the paso doble, was better, because he got to be a little bit more dramatic.

Marissa Jaret Winokur did a really nice quickstep that I enjoyed watching. I also liked the sensuality of her rumba, although I had to agree that the dance was way too easy to be doing at this point in the competition.

Cristian de la Fuente was very good once again for a guy with a tendon injury, and Cheryl deserves some sort of bonus for doing choreography around his weakness. The first dance was the Viennese waltz. I didn't really like it because it was slower and accentuated the things I don't like about him, like his posture. And overall form. Heh. But the second dance (samba) was looser so it didn't emphasize those issues as much, and I thought it was better.

Kristi's first dance, the tango, did not emphasize so much of the sexiness she was practicing in the class, but she was sooo good - the choreography was so complicated and it was just heads and tails the toughest tango I've seen performed this season. The jive was next, and the other jive Kristi performed remains my favorite dance of the year, so it was a lot to live up to. First of all, Kristi got a chunk of hair stuck to her face early on in the dance, and I have to admit I found that incredibly distracting. Also, she had kind of that pageant smile plastered onto her face, with no change in emotions, and normally that wouldn't bother me, but my eye was already up there with the hair. But it looked like a very difficult and well-executed jive. It didn't enthrall me like the last one did. Still, if I were comparing her to the other dances (and that is the point of the show!) she is so far beyond them that if she doesn't stay the show will be a joke!

Go Kristi!

Icenetwork as a Hypothetical

Technology Liberation Front discusses a paper by Barbara Ebsin that looks at the issue of the NFL Network seeking arbitration to force cable programmers to carry their network (at their prices) because they believe they have "must have" network that should be made available to consumers. Ebsin suggests that carrying this network might actually be anti-consumer, because it may lead to cable companies charging consumers for a network they are not interested in. She makes this argument by pulling out the example of Icenetwork (available online via subscription). Ebsin ponders what would happen if Icenetwork made a similar argument as the NFL Network about mandatory carriage of the network, based on the idea that the network seeks the carriage and a consumer wants it. I have not had a chance to read the paper; I understand the example. It seems maybe she used the Icenetwork because figure skating is so much the opposite of football that she wants the reader to understand that there are other networks with viewer demand but that, if these networks made the same carriage demands that NFL Network does, it would be deemed ridiculous (please correct me if I am getting the point wrong on that one). I guess the amount of viewer demand doesn't (and shouldn't) come into play in her argument, but I am wondering what role it would actually play in any arbitration since NFL ratings are still quite high and there is such outrage when certain games are shown exclusively on there, because so many people do not have access.

The Fashion Crimes of Oksana Baiul

I usually limit my fashion critiques to the ice rink, but thankfully the ladies of Go Fug Yourself aren't as close-minded, and have brought us this shot of Oksana Baiul in what I can only describe as an aluminum foil tracksuit. See for yourself. She was snapped at the recent Sports Museum of America opening.

Hidden Talents of Yu-na Kim

According to Dramabeans.com, Yu-na Kim recently showcased her little known singing talents on the Korean show "The Star Show" the other day. You can find a clip on the web site if you would like to hear. Here is the site's review:

Granted, it’s not exactly a perfect performance, and she chose a difficult song to perform live — but dude, I’m not going to rip on the singing skills of anyone who can propel themselves more than their own body length through the air while spinning multiple times and landing upright on the edge of a blade. Mad respect to skaters (figure and otherwise).

I know nothing about this show. I wonder if it's the equivalent of Mirai Nagasu singing on American Idol? I don't know.

...and more Kristi

Kristi Yamaguchi threw out the first pitch at Dodgers Stadium on Friday. And since I love baseball almost as much as figure skating I felt the need to share. Unfortunately, I could not find a like to the video - I'd love to see how Kristi did. She doesn't appear a natural ballplayer, she's so petite! Anyway, it was apparently the first trip to Dodger Stadium for the native Californian. She spoke with MLB.com about her busy schedule:

"I came from a wardrobe fitting, then to rehearsal, then to a television shoot and now I'm here, and I probably won't be able to stay for the whole game, because we are rehearsing tonight as well," Yamaguchi said. "So it's a pretty busy schedule."

But the chance to throw out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game was an extraordinary opportunity that most people would not pass up.

"It's not something you get asked to do every day," said Yamaguchi. "It's definitely a special occasion ... and hopefully I can get some more people here to vote for us and get their support behind us.

Kristi could not name any favorite baseball players from growing up (obviously the lovely skater is not a baseball watcher, but, hey, she probably watches enough hockey to make up for it), but it appears she is a closeted Mets fan. (I have some friends who will be excited by that):

She couldn't remember her favorite players growing up, but when she was one of the recipients of the Thurman Munson Award for her community work last February, she got to meet a fellow recipient who really impressed her.

"I met David Wright, and he's an amazing guy," said Yamaguchi. "I was so impressed with him, his attitude and what he does in the community and, obviously, his career, and he's just a great guy."

Oh, David Wright, even Kristi Yamaguchi loves you.

Calling Kristi Fans

USA Today's Feedroom has a short video interview of Kristi Yamaguchi with her adorable family. Her daughters are so cute and I loved hearing from her husband as well.

Dice-K Splits with Coach

Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi has split with coach and choreographer Nikolai Morozov. The move comes after Morozov's decision to coach Japanese rival Nobunari Oda, according to The Japan Times.

"It's a bit awkward to have the same coach with my rival. I had expected Nikolai to concentrate on me toward the (2010 Vancouver) Olympics," Takahashi said.

Takahashi, a 2007 world silver medalist, is also coached by Utako Nagamitsu and will continue to work with him, but will need a new choreographer.

For his part, Morozov will not be hurting for students as he has other skaters like Miki Ando under his wing.

I tried to do a search on this, but does anyone remember if Morozov choreographed Takahashi's recent "cyber swan" short program, or perhaps if the skater did it himself?

Most Likely To Succeed

U.S. National Champion Mirai Nagasu has been named one of America's "most promising athletes" by Forbes magazine, according to an International Figure Skating forum. The posting says Nagasu was the only figure skater to be selected by the mag, which is trying to pinpoint the next big thing in sports.

Also, congratulations are due to our favorite dancing queen, Kristi Yamaguchi. Sports Illustrated reports that she will be honored with the Sonya Henie award. The IFS forum also reports that:

Yamaguchi was selected as the winner of the Sonya Henie award this year because she has brought recognition to the sport of figure skating in a positive and favorable manner. The award is presented to a female, professional skater.

Nobody Puts Kristi Yamaguchi in the Corner

To start today's "Dancing with the Stars" recap, I have to admit I was not sorry to see Derek and Shannon go last week. I'm not usually rooting against people, but those two were getting pretty distracting, what with the crying, and the ranting, and the not so candid kissing, and the fake butts even.

Now, I will try to be a little bit more positive (even though there was no figure skating on the show tonight - boo!). I'll start with Kristi. I thought her first dance, the quick step, was good, but I looooved the samba! Of course, it did not appear the judges agreed with me, but it was just so impressive. Unfortunately, Kristi also performed the dance dressed like a chicken, which may have been distracting to the viewers/judges. She was good though. I thought maybe the lift would be better because of all of her pairs experience, but that was like twenty years ago, I suppose.

This is the first week I enjoyed another performer just as much as I enjoyed Kristi. I thought Mario was amazing (also, Karina, way to steal Johnny Castle's lift training strategies by making Mario practice in the water)! I could have watched the dances over and over. His lift was the only one that really made sense to me and it was very good. I hope he sticks around.

I only got to see Tracy Turnblad's first dance, but I am just so impressed by her. She did do choreography on broadway but from the beginning of the show it was obvious she was not a natural, and she has improved so much. She's delightful.

Jason Taylor is very nice to watch but I'm back to not being very impressed. The tango was just alright for me. And the samba was annoyingly easy - I realized about halfway through that he must have spent all week practicing the lift. It was a great lift, but it didn't really go with the rest of the dance.

Cristian was very impressive - he was obviously not doing anything with his left arm (which he apparently needs surgery on) but the amount that he can with his right arm left me in awe. Not as good a performance as the rest of the contestants, but I thought it was a valiant effort.

Breaking!

According to KHQ in Spokane, Washington: At 5 p.m. Eastern there is apparently a live announcement regarding the 2010 U.S. Nationals....I may not be able to update so I wanted to let you all know to look for it.

UPDATE: Well, as expected, the announcement was that the 2010 U.S. figure skating championships will be returning to Spokane, Washington. Congratulations Spokane!!!

Here Comes Pluschenko

Watch out Jeffrey Buttle, 2006 Olympic gold medalist Evgeny Pluschenko is getting serious. According to Figure Skating Mystery, Pluschenko and coach submitted a detailed outline of their preparation plans for the 2008-2009 figure skating season.

The plan described all of the goals and milestones for each step of the preparation, defined the due dates for selecting the music, dates for developing the short and free programs, making of the costumes, participation in obligatory skating events, sport camps, competitions and exhibition shows.

Of course, it will take some time for Pluschenko to get back on form but he is a fierce competitor and will no doubt make the men’s competitions even more exciting.

Study: Skating Judges Collude

An article from the Martlet points out a study that was recently published in the Journal of Sports Economics that figure skating judges alter their scores to conform with other judges' scores. The data was taken from figure skating world championships between 2001 and 2003.

From the article:

Author Jungmin Lee, a labour economics professor at Florida International University, found that judges try to choose scores close to their counterparts, especially when their scores for the previous skater were very different from their colleagues’. Judges try to pick similar scores because they are responding to criteria used to evaluate their own performance, Lee suggested, adding that this trend hurts the skaters who performed the best.

“The case of figure skating judging clearly shows that there is a bias toward agreement, because the degree of agreement among judges is used as a measure of reliability of the evaluations and to assess individual judges themselves,” the study said. “Judges tend to rank skaters in accordance with preperformance information, putting less weight on the actual competition.”

Lee also found that female judges are more generous on average than male judges, but that male figure skaters tend to receive higher scores than female and pairs skaters. Judges also tend to favour skaters from their own country.

Although the paper does not appear available online, you can find other of Lee's figure skating papers here. In Lee's words from his abstract: "I test for the existence of "outlier aversion" in which subjective evaluators avoid submitting outlying judgments. I find that judges manipulate scores to achieve a targeted level of agreement with the other judges."

It should be noted that the new Code of Points debuted in 2004, upon acknowledgment that the old judging system was unacceptable. I'm not sure if Lee has analyzed the new system but I would be quite interested in seeing what the results of that were.

Kim to Fans: Simmer Down

Korean skater Yu-na Kim would like a little bit of peace from fans while she practices. That’s what was reported in the Korea Times regarding a recent posting Kim had on her website (although when I visited the site, it stated that it would reopen soon, so I couldn’t check the post out).

The article states that the excessive attention has made Kim feel “bitter,” and quotes the skater as stating:

``When you find me practicing on an ice rink, please watch and root for me in your heart,'' said Kim, who finished third for the second straight year at the World Championships in March despite a hip injury.

``As fans make noise while moving in crowds to watch me skate, other skaters training on the ice cannot focus on their exercises. I really feel sorry for them.

``Concentration is the top priority in practice. Although I fully understand your cheering, please don't distract them.''

Kim also asked fans not to use flashlights, which can be extremely dangerous to skaters.

Although Kim used to train in Canada, she returned to Korea after her injury and is practicing at the Lotte World Rink in Jamsil, Southern Seoul.

I wonder if any of the skaters reading this blog have had similar spectator distractions to contend with while practicing? Feel free to share.

Very Late Japan Open Results and Eldredge!

Apologies for the very late Japan Open results. The competition actually took place last week in Tokyo. Apparently this was a team competition - Japan vs. Europe vs. North America. Japan won. The North American team, made up of only Americans, was last. (Guess where Europe ended up!?)

A piece of great news is that Evan Lysacek actually won the free skate, beating Stephane Lambiel by more than five points, so I guess he is all better from his injury that kept him out of the world championships.

Kimmie Meissner and Mirai Nagasu came in fourth and fifth among the ladies. Mao Asada won the ladies portion, with Sarah Meier in second by by about five points. Yukuri Nakano was third and Kira Koorpi brought up the rear in sixth place.

Also, I was kind of shocked to see that TODD ELDREDGE (Wha??) was competing. I really could not find out much about this competition, but I didn't see any other elder statesmen in there, so it was shocking to see his name. He came in last place among the men with around 111. However, it should be noted that he was only three points behind Takeshi Honda. Wow, go Todd! I didn't even know he was still competing.

According to his website, this is only Todd's second try at the new code of points. I'm really impressed.