Back on the blades | Other Sports | Sports | London Free Press

Defending Olympic and World Ice Dance Champions Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir discuss their return to the ice after Tessa's surgery to alleviate pain in her shins and calves. They will debut at the Winter Dreams on Ice show this Sunday in Canada, performing to John Legend's "Let It Snow."

Back on the blades | Other Sports | Sports | London Free Press

News | Chan rested and ready for 'mini-worlds' | Universal Sports

 Canadian Patrick Chan, who has become known for receiving huge scores, particularly in his program components, despite messy programs is hoping to quiet the naysayers with a strong showing in Beijing. This is his 3rd trip to the Senior Grand Prix Final and he admits that on his first two attempts he was exhausted and over-trained, but that he feels relaxed and calm this time around. Chan came back from a disastrous short program to win Skate Canada, but fell to silver at Cup of Russia with a flawed and messy free skate. If he can skate both of his programs clean, I believe there is nobody else in the world who can top him. So if Chan can conquer his demons and not beat himself, he will be your 2010 Mens Grand Prix Final Champion.

News | Chan rested and ready for 'mini-worlds' | Universal Sports

Favorite Figure Skating Memories #4: Bourne and Kraatz World Championship Free Dance

Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz of Canada have been one of my favorite Ice Dance teams for a long time. In fact, their innovative and theatrical routines are what got me interested in Ice Dancing when the sport was still dominated by Europeans. While they were a world class team, their performances were often underscored under the old 6.0 system due to the fact that they were North American and not European. Now when you look at the top Ice Dance teams in the world, a majority are from the United States and Canada so I guess you can say that Bourne and Kraatz were ahead of their time. Their athleticism and artistry paved the way for the new generation of Ice Dancers to succeed from Canadians Marie France-Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon and Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir to Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto and Meryl Davis & Charlie White of the United States.

In 2003, Bourne and Kraatz were finally awarded the scores they deserved as they claimed the World Championship gold medal. This is the Free Dance that allowed them to finally end the streak of European domination. Watch how perfect their technique is and how well they interpret the music. Also notice their inventive lifts and their use of the hydroblading technique which they helped to popularize.

Favorite Figure Skating Memories #3: Sale and Pelletier's 2002 Olympic Free Skate

Unless you were living under a rock during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, you should remember the pairs free skate. Sale and Pelletier of Canada were a close 2nd after the short program to Russian rivals Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze. When the Russian's bobbled in the free skate, the Canadians needed a clean program to secure the gold medal. They did exactly that, but they did not win gold, much to the surprise of the commentators and viewers worldwide. The Russians stood atop the podium, but as we later found out, the French judge had been bribed by her federation to give the nod to the Russians and when her vote was discounted, the Canadians and Russians were tied. A few days later, they were awarded co-gold medals. Here is Sale and Pelletier's free skate to "Love Story," a program that is as close to perfect as I have ever seen and one of my favorite figure skating memories.

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Skate Canada Preview

Here is a preview of the skaters you will see at the ISU's second Grand Prix of Figure Skating Event next weekend, Skate Canada in Kingston, Ontario. It is important to notice that Canadian Ice Dance team and Olympic/World gold medalists Virtue/Moir will not be competing due to Tessa's injury. Fellow Canadian and Olympic bronze medalist Joannie Rochette will also not be be competing in the event. Top Canadian pairs team Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison also announced yesterday that they are withdrawing from the competition due to Bryce's injury. Even without their top skaters, Canada will still have a large presence in this competition with 11 entries. Patrick Chan, Canada's top man has the potential for greatness so it will certainly be interesting to see if he can live up to expectations, or if he will cave under pressure. Young American Adam Rippon is also someone to watch and he seems hungry to take the place of Lysacek and Weir among the top American men. In Ladies, your guess is as good as mine among the top competitors. Suguri is aging and hasn't done much in the past few years. Canadian Phaneuf was poised to become a top competitor but fizzled out a few years ago. Csizny has the potential to be spectacular, but often falters under pressure. We'll see how a recent coaching change affects her at the competition. And Ksenia Makarova has the hopes of all of Russia behind her, but in my opinion, she lacks the talent of the world's best. Definitely keep you eye on the young American Agnes Zawadzki. She is immensely talented and has the potential to be the best female skater the US has produced in years. Most of the pairs teams in this competition are young and lack experience, so this event will be a total craps shoot. In dance, the British team of Kerr/Kerr and the Canadians Crone/Poirier are certainly favorites, but we'll have to see how Sinead Kerr's shoulder injury effects her. Also look for Americans Chock/Zuerlein, another up and coming Marina Zoueva & Igor Shpilband team, to make the podium.

When the broadcast times are announced for each event, I will update this post.

UPDATE: Skategate and I have chosen our Skate Canada fantasy teams so here goes! Interestingly enough we have 0/3 of the same picks for MEN, 1/3 for LADIES, 2/3 for PAIRS, and 3/3 for DANCE. Quite the progression we have going here! The letter next to each skater, for those unfamiliar with Fantasy Skating, is the pool they are in. Skaters are grouped in pools based on world rankings and overall performance. Competitors choose one skater from each pool. The system is set up this way so that fantasy competitors cannot simply choose the three skaters or teams they expect to make the podium, but rather one from each ability level in the competition.

BackStage Barbie Skategate Shared Picks

Men:

1) Patrick CHAN (Canada) A
2) Kevin REYNOLDS (Canada) B
3) Jeremy TEN (Canada) C
4) Alban PREAUBERT (France) B
5) Paolo BACCHINI (Italy) C
6) Yasuharu NANRI (Japan) C
7) Nobunari ODA (Japan) A
8) Artur GACHINSKI (Russia) B
9) Javier FERNANDEZ (Spain) B
10) Kristoffer BERNTSSON (Sweden) C
11) Grant HOCHSTEIN (USA) C
12) Adam RIPPON (USA) A

Ladies:

1) Amelie LACOSTE (Canada) C
2) Cynthia PHANEUF (Canada) A
3) Myriane SAMSON (Canada) C
4) Valentina MARCHEI (Italy) B

5) Haruka IMAI (Japan) B

6) Fumie SUGURI (Japan) A
7) Ksenia MAKAROVA (Russia) A
8) Sonia LAFUENTE (Spain) C
9) Alissa CZISNY (USA) A
10) Alexe GILLES (USA) C\
11) Agnes ZAWADZKI (USA) C 
**Sarah Meier has withdrawn due to injury  
Pairs:
 
1) Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD (Canada) B
2) Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS (Canada) C
3) Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS/Dylan MOSCOVITCH (Canada) C
4) Huibo DONG / Yiming WU (China) B
5) Stacey KEMP / David KING (Great Britain) B
6) Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE (Russia) A
7) Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV (Russia) C
8) Marissa CASTELLI / Simon SHNAPIR (USA) C
9) Britney SIMPSON/Nathan MILLER (USA) C


Ice Dance:

1) Vanessa CRONE / Paul POIRIER (Canada) A
2) Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM (Canda) C
3) Pernelle CARRON / Lloyd JONES (France) B
4) Stefanie FROHBERG / Tim GIESEN (Germany) C
5) Sinead KERR / John KERR (Great Britain) A
6) Lorenza ALESSANDRINI / Simone VATURI ITA (Italy) C
7) Kristina GORSHKOVA / Vitali BUTIKOV (Russia) B
8) Madison CHOCK / Greg ZUERLEIN (USA) B
9) Rachel TIBBETTS / Collin BRUBAKER (USA) C