In other sports....

The british Elite Ice Hockey league has posted its fixtures for the new season. The league has grown in size with the addition of two new teams - the Braehead Clan and the Dundee Stars.
Defending League champions Coventry Blaze kick off their season at home against the Belfast Giants, 25th August.

Figure skating and a thank-you.

The ISU has posted a video example of the new style Short dance- which will combine aspects of the old compusory and original dances. The Skaters are Jane Sumersett and Todd Gilles of the USA.

Watch it here

Also at the ISU council - the following international competitions were confirmed for the next few seasons.

2011
Europeans - Bern, Switzerland
Four Continents - Taipei City, Chinese Taipei
Jr Worlds - Gangneung City, Republic of Korea
Worlds - Tokyo, Japan

2012
Europeans - Sheffield, UK
Four Continents- (still pending)
Jr Worlds- Minsk, Belarus
Worlds - Nice, France

Also a big thank-you to BBC sports Ollie Williams for posting a link to this blog on his twitter, and a welcome to any new readers who have followed that link. Please come back often, follow and comment.

Youth Olympic Games

The Organizing commitee of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August have changed their rules on the number of coaches a country can send with its young athletes. (International Gymnastics) In gymnastics they had only previously allowed one coach for both mens and womens gymnastics - difficult if your male and female entry train on different sides of the country! This rule had led to the USA refusing to send a female gymnast.

I haven't found a lot of info on entries yet but Russia's Viktoria Komova is due to attend, having won the junior all around and a heap of other medals at the junior European championships. With the organizing commitee now allowing one coach per gymnast it will be interesting to see if USA Gymnastics go back on their word and send someone like Jordyn Wieber (junior Pacific Rim champion) to compete with Komova. She may be one of the few that can.....

Also - the Singapore organizing commitee have planned a special 'olympic lane' on the roads connecting the athlete's village and competition venues. Motorists will be required to give way to specially marked official vehicles.

Brian's Gang.

The Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club is becoming a hotspot for skating talent. Brian Orser, 2 time olympic medallist wasn't sure he wanted to be a full time coach until his first and now star pupil, begged him to coach her full time. That pupil is of course Yu-Na Kim.

Given the success and popularity of Yu-Na, other young skaters flocked to Toronto. Brian coaches two american talents- Adam Rippon (2009 Junior world champion, 2010 Four Continents Champion) and Christina Gao (who pleasantly surprised everyone by finishing 5th at US nationals in her senior debut). Gao has already been compared by many to a young Yu-Na or Michelle Kwan.

















Also Brian has a growing collection of 'little Yu-Nas' teenage korean skaters Min-Jung Kwak (who finished 13th at the olympics as Korea's second entry) and recently 2008 Korean junior champion Yea-Ji Yun.


















Icenetwork also reported former world champ Brian Joubert is traning in Toronto for 6 weeks this summer. This isn't a permanent arrangement (yet...) but the frenchman is currently coach-less so we'll see.

Spelbound balance shows and training.

In the recent Britain's Got Talent final it was fairly clear to all that there could be only one winner- the acrobatic gymnastics team Spelbound.

I you haven't seen their performances - watch them here (semifinal) (final)

The team were worshiped by the Judges and Simon Cowell said they would be the perfect act for the London 2012 olympic opening ceremonies.

This instant fame however caused some issues for the group. Being the show's champions they were legally obliged to take part in a 15 stop tour around the country, finishing at the O2 arena. This could potentially hamper their preparations for the World Acrobatic Championships immediately after, in which most of them are due to compete in smaller groups for team GB

However, Spelbound are insistant on keeping to all their planned engagements, training in the daytime at gyms local to the show venues before performing in the evenings. Hard work but very best of luck to them! After worlds they will also perform for the queen at the royal variety performance. The ultimate prize of the talent show seems almost a small stage for this act.

More British Gymnastics bits and bobs.

Heading into the British Championships this weekend British Gymnastics has announced they will post on-demand videos of as many routines as possible on their website (BGTV) they have also posted a preview video here.

With Becky Downie out it could be the week for new talent such as Jocelyn Hunt or Nicole Hibbert who both competed in the european medal winning team. Or it could be the week for comebacks.

Hannah Whelan, who was the smallest member of the 2008 GB olympic team (pictured here with the tallest athlete, rower Josh West) is making her comeback after a complicated wrist injury. We wish her all the best.

Also Marissa King is back after her first year in American College gymnastics. It will be great to see how her elite gymnastics has changed. Marissa speaks about her college experiences here.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

With team GB making up two teams this summer- one for worlds and one for commonwealths, Nationals should be interesting. Good luck to all the girls!

Skating News and Tweets

Joannie Rochette has been busy - this week she attended the G20 ceremonies as a guest and sat next to Michelle Obama for lunch. She also was at the Canadian Grand Prix and will be a special guest for the official Canada day celebrations in Ottawa on Thursday. Oh and on top of all that she was nominated for an ESPY award for 'best moment'. I hope she wins, she deserves it.
Read more here


Evgeni Plushenko will not be in the Grand Prix this season or in the 2014 olympics. He has lost his ISU eligibility by competing in professional ice shows. Read it here.

Mao Asada has a refreshing new exhibition at Dreams on Ice. The kind of beautiful programme you can just sit back and enjoy. She has become an elegant young woman. Also Daisuke Takahashi unveiled his new exhibition choreographed by Stephane Lambiel.


Adam Rippon will skate to Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet for his SP and Rachmaninov Piano Concerto number 2 for his LP. He was interviewed by Icenetwork.

Changes to jump values under the new ISU rules.
The value of quad toe was raised to 10.3 (from 9.8), tripe Axel to 8.5 (from 8.2). Base value of double Axel lowered to 3.3 (from 3.5).
Jump under-rotated by 1/4 to 1/2 revolution gets 70% of base value. Jump under-rotated by more than 1/2 gets downgraded to next lower jump.

Ilderton, ON honoured its olympic champions, Tessa and Scott.


Scott Hamilton is recovering well after his surgery. He tweeted this
Thank you, everyone, for your love, support & prayers during my recent brain surgery! You lifted me up & gave me strength to get through it!

Denis Ten tweeted

I need new feet for my new skates. Can anybody share them with me?

News on Mao and Yu-Na

Olympic silver medallist, Mao Asada headed to Korea this week for Medalist on ice in Seoul. Interestingly she did not face off against Yu-Na Kim, however other participants included Evan Lysacek, Evgeni Plushenko, Shen and Zhao, Miki Ando, Alexei Yagudin and Virtue and Moir. A star-studded cast to make up for the absense of the Korean Superstar.

After practice on Friday, Asada told reporters, "Figure skating got more attention because of the rivalry between Kim Yu-na and me. I hope the momentum carries on with more such 'good' rivalry."

Turning to changes to the scoring system by the International Skating Union that have already been dubbed the "Asada rules," the skater said there is no truth in the claim that they work in her favor. At the official press conference at Hyundai Card headquarters in Seoul, Asada said, "It's good that the ISU raised the base value of certain jumps. But that in itself isn't to my advantage. What's important is that I nail the triple axels in the competition. If I don't, the rules don't matter at all."

The ISU in early May announced new rules for its figure skating scoring system, which included increasing the base value of technically more demanding jumps while decreasing it for easier jumps. Kim Yu-na expressed dissatisfaction at the change by saying, "I don't understand why they tried to change the rules in such a way."
(Adapted from an article in The Chosen Ilbo)

Meanwhile. Yu-Na has taken a vacation in Tobermory, Canada with her fellow Korean skater Min-Jung Kwak who now trains with her in Toronto. Yu-Na is due to skate in Korea for 'All That Skate Summer', July 23-25. The show is organised by All That Sports, The managing agency Yu-Na and her mother sat up themselves. She too will attract big names including Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen.

Yu-Na posted this about her vacation.

“I feel like I haven’t been on a vacation like this since I was young. I always talked about how I wanted to go on a vacation.. Although all people are like that k k k So far, I think I have been so immersed in one thing that I never had any time.. Now, all the things I’ve wanted to do.. even the minor things… I want to do each and every one of them!!!

Last weekend, I left for my last break before beginning my summer training… I was so happy for the 2 nights and 3 days. I was happy.. I was happy… The realization that the next day is Monday……. I couldn’t speak….”

I think the girl deserves a well-earned break!

British Championships next week.

Guildford Spectrum 3/4th July

World and European Champion Beth Tweddle returns to Guildford

The Women’s British Championships is one of the highlights of the British Gymnastics calendar. The event includes competitions whereby the Senior and Junior British All-around Champions are proclaimed, along with the Apparatus Champions in the Senior, Junior and Espoir categories, on the second day of competition.

The 2010 British Championships will reunite the majority of Great Britain's Team Silver medal winning gymnasts from the 2010 European Championships; Beth Tweddle, Becky Downie, Nicole Hibbert, Niamh Rippin and Jocelyn Hunt made history in Birmingham earlier this year and will again all be looking for support from the British crowd.

Beth Tweddle will return to the British Championships having missed the event last year as she competed at the World University games. Since then Beth has gone on to win the World Floor title and the European Floor and Bars Titles!

Beth Tweddle: “I’m really excited to be making my return to the British Championships in Guildford. The last 12 months have been incredible for me, and the fact that I have won the World Floor title and the European Floor and Bars titles all in Great Britain, shows that having the home-crowd can really make a difference. To be back in Guildford competing in front of many of the fans who have given me such amazing support is something I'm really looking forward too.”

Unfortunately Becky Downie the defending Senior Champion, won't be able to defend her title due to injury, meaning her hopes of securing her third senior title in a row to continue her amazing run of British Championships stretching through two Espoir titles, to two Junior titles to two Senior titles must come to an end.

Other Seniors to watch out for include Jenni Pinches, Imogen Cairns, Hannah Whelan, Marissa King and Danusia Francis who for various reasons are all on the comeback trail in Guildford.

Later this year the Senior gymnasts will be looking to claim places either in their Home Countries National Teams for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (3-14th October) or for the British Team at the World Championships in Rotterdam (October 17-24th). The 2010 British Championships acts as one of the qualifying events to make these Teams so is of vital importance to many of the gymnasts competing.

In the Junior category the ones to watch will be those that took part in the Junior European Championships- Ruby Harrold, Laura Mitchell, Rebecca Tunney, Billie Mackenzie and Jessica Hogg along with Venus Romaeo and Lizzie Beddoe who return from injury.

We wish all the gymnasts the best of luck for a fantastic 2010 British Championships,

(Article from British Gymnastics)

In the Summertime.

It's a busy summer on the way in the gymnastics world.
For the USA- competition starts at home. (Click the logos to take you to the event websites)













Then in August- the world's most talented juniors head to Singapore.
The Commonwealth Games take place 3-14 October in Delhi (woefully close to Worlds- so the gymnastics competition may be rather under-attended)

The 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships take place in Rotterdam, 16-24 October. This is the biggest world championships of the quadrennium, over 70 countries will send full teams, which will begin to be wittled down to the final 12 which will win tickets to London 2012.

The Worlds website also has a number of interesting interviews and articles- including this on Beth Tweddle.

Reigning world champ on floor Beth Tweddle is enjoying the rise of the British men, and not just because she enjoys seeing her home country do well at competitions. What with her male colleagues now sharing the limelight and helping her share the burden of expectations, Tweddle is feeling less pressure to do well, which she says is helping her. ‘A few years ago, when we went to a major championships, it was a case of “what result can Beth come home with?” But now it’s more about “what result can British Gymnastics achieve?” The boys have been getting lots of great results on the international circuit for some time and so the pressure has been taken off me and is shared between us, which is nice.’

Tweddle has indicated she intends to stick with the two-events-only strategy she adopted after the Beijing Olympics. Like last year, she will compete bars and floor only at the world championships. However, there are a few changes in the works. For one thing, she is going to get a new floor routine soon. ‘If you do the same thing over and over again it just gets boring, so straight after the Europeans I’m going to change it and get a new choreographer,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, it will put a bit more pizzazz back into my life.’

The 25-year-old is now gearing herself up for the world championships in Rotterdam in October, but as the gymnast explains, she will have to miss the Commonwealth Games because of a calendar clash. ‘Unfortunately the world championships clash with the Commonwealth Games, so for myself I’m hoping to go to the World Championships. All our funding is based on our World Championship results, not our Commonwealths. So our A team will travel out to Rotterdam for the worlds and the B team plus the two reserves from the A team will go to the Commonwealth Games. It works in a good way, as the B team will be the younger seniors who will also be eligible for 2012 and are not quite ready this year. They’ll get the experience of a major championships. Hopefully that will bode well for the future for us.’

The fact that at age 25, she will be one of the oldest female gymnasts competing in Rotterdam, doesn’t bother Tweddle. ‘Age doesn’t really come into it. It’s just an extra number. I’m still out there, still enjoying it and still getting the results.’ So what’s keeping her going? Why, her dream of winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, of course. ‘A lot of people have said, “Why do you keep going?” The motivation is I’ve still got one dream to achieve and that’s 2012, hopefully. We’ll see what happens, and I think with age comes experience.’ (Sources: The Telegraph, 28 April 2010; Liverpool Echo, 1 and 4 May 2010; BBC Sport, 12 May 2010)

Poor Scott.

(This article came from Skate Today)

World-renowned figure skater and Olympic Gold Medalist, Scott Hamilton, has announced he will undergo surgery to remove a brain tumor.On Tuesday afternoon, Hamilton took to his twitter page to announce the surgery.

“Okay. So here I go. One more surgery to EVICT this mischief making brain tumor. Tried “nuking” it gone. Now it’s time to get it out!”

In November 2004 it was announced that Hamilton had a benign brain tumor and he underwent treatment at the Cleveland Clinic. In 1997 Hamilton battled testicular cancer and since has been an advocate for men to get tested.

In 2009, Hamilton decided to take charge of his health and took to the ice for the first time in over five years. In March 2010, the Bio Channel aired a two-hour television special chronicling Scott’s return to skating after battling cancer.

“Thanks to all who have sent their best wishes and prayed for a great outcome,” Hamilton tweeted back to his followers. “With that much support I am bound to be better than ever!”

Scott Hamilton won four consecutive U.S. championships from 1981–1984, four consecutive World Championships during the same years and a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics.

We hope Scott will make a full recovery and get back on the ice as soon as possible.

I'd like to add my best wishes to Scott for a full and speedy recovery.

A Rare Gem

Browsing through youtube today I found this- Canadian footage of a teeny-tiny Michelle Kwan at the 1995 World Championships in Birmingham.

Michelle was only 14 here - this was before the age rules were made stricter. Whist it's not as difficult as several of the routines we see today- it's great to see a programme with clean, confidently landed jumps.



It's also a demonstration though of how convoluted (and possibly biased) the old judging system was. We complain the current system is hard to understand- But at least you now win gold based on what YOU do rather than what everyone else does!

What happens when 2 radio presenters take on Gymnastics?

Equally amusing - the boys take on Ice Hockey with the Coventry Blaze.

Had a long day?

It's nothing compared to the day John Isner and Nicolas Mahut have been having at Wimbledon. They shattered all records for the longest game in grand-slam history. Being forced to give up due to vanishing light after 10 hours of play and tying 59 games all in the 5th set.

But, they'll be back tomorrow to finish what they started.
Read about the match here.

Edit- on day 3 of the game and after 11 hours of play, Isner won 70:68 in the final set.

Skating News

Grand Prix assignments can be found here :-

Ladies Men Pairs Dance

Those Noticeable by their presence-

• Yu-Na Kim is to compete in China and Russia- probably not her first choice of venues as neither is very near to Toronto. Great to see her though
• Mirai Nagasu has a second chance to prove herself in China, she'll also face Mao in Japan.
  
• Fumie Suguri - puts off retirement- again!
• Johnny Weir - still plans to compete, maybe?
  
• Evgeni Plushenko - is down for Cup of Russia, I'll be amazed if he turns up.
  
• Pang and Tong - local gigs in Japan and China
• Kavaguti and Smirnov- I'd love to see them stick around until Sochi
• Virtue and Moir, Davis and White- Yipee

Those Noticeable by their absense-

• Evan Lysacek
• Joannie Rochette
  Neither have 'retired' but both seem to be taking a break to make their minds up

Other News
Not only have the ISU got rid of compulsories, They've ditched spirals from the ladies short programme :-(

Mao Asada has picked her new music (SP Tango by Alfred Schnittke, LP Liebesträume by Franz Liszt) and also picked a new jump coach - Hiroshi Nagakubo, Aikiko Suzuki's coach. Yet to hear if she will pick a new main coach as well. We had such high hopes when she signed up witht the legend Tarasova but it didn't really work out. I heard a rumour months ago she might ask Shizuka Arakawa. That would be cool, but unlikely.

USA's Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker have split. They impressed everyone by becoming Junior World and Senior US champions in quick succession, but then failed to go higher and make the olympics. Keauna is taking a year off to focus on school. Rockne is looking for a new partner.

Kimmie Meissner is training (and tweeting) again. She hasn't committed to competing this year though. I'd love to see it.

No news yet on that 'other retirement' SarahandDrew mentioned on Twitter.

Skate Canada has a new logo - oooooh

Anastasia Grishina

This little star from Russia is brimming with talent. She deservedly came home with a bag full of medals from Junior Europeans. She is playful, elegant, a great tumber and she can Dance :-)

2010 European Champs - Photos

In May I went to the NIA in Birmingham to watch the women's team final at the European Gymnatsic Championships. A selection of my own photos from the event are below

The romanian girls warm up for vault

Beth Chills before Bars

Jocelyn Hunt- new to Team GB and the big stage

The Russians exude confidence- Euros is still their stage

Either Racea or Chelaru giving a team-mate a helping hand with their stuff

The italians- 'love' the leotard and sneaker look!

Semenova- still the queen of cool

And yes- most teams were wearing national colours.

Congrats to the team GB girls on their first Euro medal- bodes well for London 2012 :-)

You can view more photos from this album here.

Also - I have skating photos from the following events-

• 2008 Trophee Eric Bompard
• 2008 Canadian Stars on Ice
• 2007 Skate Canada International
  

Flying the flag?

The BBC commentators at the 2009 worlds made a good point- fewer and fewer teams are now competing in their national colours. Until a few years ago the US always competed in red,white and blue (usually with stars for good measure).......... No more........... After Nastia won the olympic all-around title in pink- it became the USA's lucky leotards for nearly everything.



They're not the only ones - is it the new fashion or is it all a plan to make 'guess the country' more challenging? There's no rule saying you must compete in team colours but until recently it was the norm. How about these?

Italy - Sky Blue

Russia- all varieties of purple

China - Pink

Canada - Blue

Croatia- Day suit with collar and cuffs!

Mind you - there's always the odd country that makes up for the rest!

Tweets of the week (22 June)

Here's the latest from the chatty world of Twitter


Ice Skating

Patrick Chan: I love sleeping in cars... knocks me right out

Mirai Nagasu: oh UPS system please, send my new skates soon....your friend blades are waiting for you.

You know what Goldenskate forum lady, my short program is mostly liszt anyways. I hope that's mature enough for you...

Sarah and Drew (from icenetwork.com): The Zaretskys retired... and there's another retirement coming very soon...


Gymnastics

Nastia Liukin: People are staring at me as I walk into the gym soaking wet.....Remind me to never run outside when its 100 degrees

Shawn Johnson: Exhausted from a long week of training... ready for some fun in the sun!!

Chellsie Memmel: Productive day of cleaning the house and unpacking three different bags and got a lot done in the office at the gym.

Looks like the girls from Beijing 2008 are all still keeping busy in the gym.

Ice Dance - Change is gonna come.

Today the ISU (international skating union) decided to ditch the compulsory dance from ice dance at all future international competitions. Until now (including at the Vancouver olympics) the Ice dance competition was made up of 3 parts

Compulsory Dance - every one skates the same set dance (eg a waltz or as tango) to one of several pieces of music which fit the rhythm- the couples don't know which piece of music they have until it starts.
Original Dance - The ISU picks the theme every year (ast year was folk/country dance) and beyond that the couples have free reign. In Vancouver we saw everything from Scottish dance to Bollywood.

Free Dance- Any piece of music allowed, there are still required lifts and moves etc but otherwise it does what it says on the tin.

From now on there will just be a short dance and a free dance- similar to the format of the other ice skating events. The great side of this is that in the 2014 olympics there will now also be a team competition.

This news is welcomed by many skaters and fans across the world as even the reigning olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir admit training compulsory dances takes a lot of time for the amount of marks they are worth. For fans - watching 40 versions of the same dance back-to back can be a bit of a drag!

The only skaters who may be grumbling over this news are the russians who like their compulsory dances and tend to recieve rather jammy marks for them.

In other skating news - the 2013 world championships have been awarded to London, ON.
Shame I'll be revising for finals then......

2 bits of good news for Virtue and Moir- No more compulsories
and the World Championships come to their back yard.

Mixed emotions on the Vancouver Podium

The Olympics were only 4 months ago but over the weekend the assignments came out for this seasons international competitions. (If interested - view them here) Both the ladies champion and silver medallist are planning to get back on the ice again this autumn, which is great for the sport as I'm sure they have more to give.

Vancouver Medallists - looking back.

Gold for her country

Until a few years ago, South Korea was known for some great speed skaters, but never for figure skating. One talented teenager changed all that - Yu-Na Kim. Within a few years she won every title there is to win and broke every record there was to break in figure skating. In the process she became her country's number one celebrity.

Her coach (and himself a Canadian skating legend), Brian Orser described travelling with Yu-Na as like being with Princess Diana. In Vancouver photographers were hiding in the lockers overnight to to have a shot at getting near the ice to photograph her olympic moment. With all this pressure and the eyes of her country on her, Yu-Na delivered, hammering the competition and winning her country's first olympic medal in skating.

When Only Gold Will Do.

Silver medallist Mao Asada looked in serious need of a hug on the podium. Rather than proud of her achievment she was devistated. 2nd was a loss.



Mao was perhaps cursed with bad luck and a bad birthday. In 2006 she was 87 days too young to compete in the olympics in Turin. In that year at other competitions she beat all 3 of the torino olympic medallists. She may have been the best in the world at 15, but she would have to wait her turn.

Over 4 years she definitely improved and developed, breaking records and winning gold medals in the process. But by the time Vancouver came around most of the world was already counting her out. Her skates in Vancouver were great- but not quite as great as Yu-Na's.

Mao didn't dwell on her disappointment for long. She was back practicing just days after the olympics so that, a month later, she was able to win the world championship gold (Coincidently- in Turin). Then she could smile again.

As good as Gold.

Without doubt the most courageous performance of Vancouver 2010 was that of Canadian Joannie Rochette. Rochette was woken by her father in the olympic village 2 days before her skate to be told her mother had died of a heart attack. Thérèse Rochette was in Vancouver ready to watch her daughter compete- their life's work and dream.

In honour of her Mother, Joannie bravely decided to go ahead and compete. She kept it together and skated personal best scores in both programs to win a bronze medal, for herself, her mother and for Canada. The Canadian team honoured her for her bravery and Joannie carried the Canadian flag at the closing ceremony.



So anyway, there was no particular reason for me to write this little summary, and no particular reason for you to read it. But if you have - thanks and I hope you enjoyed it! Hilights of the figure skating from vancouver (as well as all the sports) can be found here.