Chinese Stars Carry Torch

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

Nancy Kerrigan is Honored

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

Eldredge Talks Coaching, Meissner

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

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

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

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

Oksana Baiul Conquers Internet

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

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

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

Joan Manley

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

More Animated Than Usual

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

Johnny Weir's Blog

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

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

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

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

Fairly Oddlympics August 1

Skating fans, set your DVRs to record the Fairly Oddlympics on Nickelodeon on Friday August 1 at 8 p.m. Eastern. It's a movie of the Fairly Oddparents television show, and Scott Hamilton is featured as both live action and animated character, according to The National Ledger.

Hamilton Says Olympic Spirit Safe

In another turn of skaters talking about Olympic politics, Scott Hamilton reportedly said that despite the political issues, the Olympics truly come down to the athletes and their stories, according to The National Ledger.

"You look back at people who tried to use the Olympics for their own personal agenda ... Adolf Hitler wanted to use the Berlin Olympics as a propaganda tool (for Aryan supremacy), but it didn't work out too well for him." Referring to the iconic, quadruple gold medal-winning African-American track star of the 1936 Games, he goes on, "When you think of Jesse Owens, and how the impact he made totally went to what they call 'The Great Olympic Moment,' and the athlete and the sport -- it was extraordinary."

Hamilton is planning on attending this summer's Olympics in Beijing.

Kiira Korpi Gets Higher Ed

According to Kiira-Korpi.net, the beautiful Finnish skater has been accepted to Tampere University to study corporate management. The site also states that this is quite a competitive university, so congratulations to Ms. Korpi!

Updated: New Rules

Kwantifiable pointed me towards some rule changes by the International Skating Union. It's definitely worth a look, but here are some highlights:

For flips and lutzes:
Technical panel will use the sign "e" in cases where wrong edge takeoff is severe, in such cases GOE (grade of execution) will be reduced by -1 to -3. In cases where the wrong takeoff edge is not so obvious, the sign "!" will be used and GOE will be at the discretion of every judge. This is interesting considering the earlier recommendations that the two jumps actually be judged the same, forgetting about edges altogether.

Have one fewer element in a well-balanced program, for which the results will include the following:
Senior Men and Ladies, maximum of three spins.
Junior Men, maximum of one step sequence
Junior Ladies, maximum of one step sequence and "No any spiral sequence" (Can anyone explain that to me?)

Axels:
If an axel jump follows another jump, without any steps, turns, hops, mazurkas and unlisted jumps, it will be counted as a jump sequence.

There's a lot more, be sure to check it out!

UPDATE: I didn't realize that Aaron at Axels, Loops, and Spins blogged about this a few days earlier than I did, but here is his post. He points out in his header that the new rules should help Asada; presumably because of the diminished deductions for flutzes.

I will also add that it will be interesting to see if the rule about one fewer element for a well-balanced program actually results in better...more fluid programs.

Getcher Toller Cranston Artwork Here

Calgary-based art company Artevo will globally market the artwork of two-time Olympic bronze medalist Canadian skater Toller Cranston., according to IceNetwork. You can view more of Cranston's work here; I really like it, especially the colors.

Capitol Fourth Recap

I took a look at Capitol Fourth's Olympic Tribute. Eric Kunzel conducted the National Symphony Orchestra playing John Williams' famous Olympic fanfare, which was first introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. They laid an Olympic montage over part of that, which included such famous summer Olympians as Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton.

Then host Jimmy Smits introduced Scott Hamilton (YAY), who said that although you focus on your own event while you're at the Olympics, when you get home you realize how everyone was pulling for you. Hamilton introduced nine members of this years Team USA: Khatuna Lorig (archery) Khan "Bob" Malaythong (badminton), Tim Morehouse (fencing), Eli Bremer (modern pentathlon), Nancy Rios (sailing), Dominic Grazioli (shooting), Kendrick Farris (weightlifting), Jake Deitchler (wrestling), Jessica Long (paralymic swimming).

Hamilton then talked about the power of inspirational music, and introduced a performance of "The Impossible Dream," from Man of La Mancha, sung by broadway star Brian Stokes MItchell. That included some more famous Olympic shots.

Happy Independence Day!

Have a great holiday! Don't forget to watch Capitol Fourth tonight on PBS!

Scott Hamilton and Capitol Fourth

I could not snag an interview with Scott Hamilton, who is in town for the Capitol Fourth Independence Day celebration on the National Mall (he'll be leading a tribute to the Olympics and USA Olympic teams). But here's his statement about the event:

"I can’t think of a better venue than the U.S. Capitol to honor and pay tribute to my fellow Olympians,” said Scott Hamilton. “These athletes represent all of the qualities that have made America so great and it’s only fitting that we give Team USA a patriotic send off to Beijing on the 4th of July when we celebrate our nation’s birthday!"

The release I received also stated that Hamilton will have an inspirational book out next year titled The Great Eight.

Don't forget to watch the Capitol Fourth celebration if you'd like to see Hamilton and the Olympic tribute.

Happy Canada Day!

Don't forget to celebrate Canada today, both for the amazing figure skaters the country has produced over the years and for the massive amounts of love that nation has for skating and skaters in general. Not to mention that Canada is home to several loyal readers of this little blog(And for many other reasons that do not directly relate to figure skating). YAY Canada!

Serena Williams, Figure Skater?

A coffee table book launched Tuesday at Wimbledon celebrates the 20th anniversary of tennis' reinstatement in the Olympics by having tennis stars pose as athletes in other sports. According to Guardian, among the photos is a picture of Serena Williams as a figure skater. The book is titled "Journey to Beijing: Tennis Celebrates the Olympics."

More Olympic Talk from Stojko

Elvis Stojko has made some more comments seemingly advocating an athlete boycott of this summer's Olympic games in Beijing. The comments were in Sharp magazine, and here's what Stojko said:

“Canadians, we live in a bubble. But there are other people around the world, and especially with Beijing hosting the Games, there’s a chance to make some pressure on China in order to change and to move forward and treat their people the way they should be treated. This may be the first time a generation must, if they decide to, give up what they want in order to help other people.”

Stojko also mentions having only received negative feedback from one athlete. Regardless, I don't think an athletic boycott is really in the cards for this Olympics, although this article gives a little summary of Olympic protests that is interesting.