I admit: I tease marathoners from time to time. Just this morning, I told someone (not someone who involved with the Boston Marathon) that running a marathon really isn’t good for you. Our bodies aren’t meant to do that.
But all kidding aside, the marathoner’s perseverance is something to admire.
And that’s why some idiot terrorist picked one of most ridiculous targets possible today. And that’s why I have full faith that, without forgetting those whose lives were lost or forever changed, Boston and the marathon community will persevere.
I’ve never liked the cliche that “sports don’t matter” in the wake of tragedy. What matters is that we get to spend our lives in the pursuit of goals. That’s what sports are all about.
So with that in mind, l’m going to do a brief Monday Myriad, sans the snark:
Marathon: Shalane Flanagan and Jason Hartmann each finished fourth before today’s senseless attack, and U.S. Paralympian Tatyana McFadden won the women’s wheelchair division.
Figure skating: The USA won the World Team Trophy, which bodes well for the new team event in the Olympics. Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold finished 2-3 in the women’s competition, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates took first in ice dancing.
Fencing: Alexander Massialas won the world junior title in men’s foil.
Via Susan Polgar’s blog and featuring her Webster University chess team:
Based on a dictionary definition, the filmmakers boil it down to three aspects:
1. Athleticism
2. Skill
3. Competition
Chess fits the last two with ease. The “athleticism” argument is weaker. They argue that it’s draining — elite players lose weight in world championship competition.
But is that essential?
Other Olympic sports have all three elements. Figure skating is perhaps the most questionable, with the “competition” aspect only coming into the mix through judging that is still partially subjective.
Modern dance, like figure skating, requires athleticism and skill. Just watch Pilobolus sometime. But it’s not competitive, and no one’s seriously lobbying for it to be in the Olympics.
So we could say the Olympics require all three. The media, on the other hand, do not. ESPN televises poker and spelling bees. SI used to cover chess, along with many European sports departments. At USA TODAY, we used to cover the Westminster Dog Show through sports.
The media, though, don’t need to be exclusive. ESPN has a lot of hours to fill, and most Myriad readers would likely vote for chess, poker, dogs and quiz bowls instead of Skip Bayless yelling at people.
Does the “chess as a sport” movement go beyond that? There’s a practical reason we won’t see chess in the Olympics. Chess players can argue for months about their playing conditions. They’re not likely to hang out with the hard-partying swimmers in the Athletes Village.
And the Olympics don’t want to get bigger right now, even if the facility needs are cheap. Hosting is already far too expensive.
So is it a sport? Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter.
Quick peek at the calendar shows us a couple of items to consider for 2014 medal projections:
12-27: Handball, Men’s World Championships
14-27: Tennis, Australian Open 18-27: Snowboarding, World Championships
19-Feb. 10: Soccer, African Cup of Nations
20-27: Figure skating, U.S. Championships
24: Bellator: Askren vs. Amoussou (welterweight title) 24-27: Winter X Games Aspen 25-Feb. 2 Bobsled/skeleton, World Championships
A few details:
SNOWBOARDING (worlds and X)
Reminder of the ever-expanding Olympic snowboarding program: halfpipe, snowboardcross, parallel giant slalom, slopestyle (new) and … parallel slalom (also new)?
The World Championships, underway in Stoneham, Quebec, have all those events, plus big air. The only problem is that a lot of top riders, especially Americans, have skipped the World Championships to prep for the X Games in Aspen, which will be heavily televised.
In slopestyle, the new world champs and runners-up in men’s and women’s slopestyle will make the trip — Roope Tonteri (FIN), Mark McMorris (CAN), Spencer O’Brien (CAN), Sina Candrian (SUI). Just a guess: Shaun White will get a bit more attention.
The men’s halfpipe has the top five from Worlds — Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI), Taku Hiraoka (JPN), Markus Malin (FIN), Christian Haller (SUI), Ryo Aono (JPN). But again, we’ll guess Shaun White will get the attention. And Louie Vito and Scotty Lago.
Do you know me? I’m a world champion at age 16. Photo by Oliver Kraus, FIS via USSA
The women’s halfpipe (or SuperPipe, as they call it) features the big names: Kelly Clark, Elena Hight, Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter and Aussie Torah Bright, who finished third in slopestyle at Worlds. The fourth- and fifth-place halfpipers in Quebec — USA’s Kaitlyn Farrington, Spain’s Queralt Castellet — will go to Aspen, while 16-year-old world champ Arielle Gold is an alternate. As Lane Myer said when he heard Ricky and Monique were speaking “the international language of love,” that makes sense.
But Aspen won’t have the races. The World Championships have snowboardcross, parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom all to themselves. Two-time Olympic snowboardcross champion Seth Wescott is on the U.S. team along with 45-year-old Lynn Ott. Multiple-time world champion Lindsey Jacobellis is recovering from an ACL injury suffered in last year’s X Games.
The other Oly-related events to watch in Aspen: freestyle skiing’s skicross, slopestyle and half/superpipe. Yes, they’re adding a lot of the X events in Sochi.
BOBSLED/SKELETON
Actually just bobsled this week, the Zweierbob Frauen and Zweierbob Manner. There is a Team Wettkampf on Sonntag, so maybe I should translate the official site or check the FIBT site for a full preview and timetable — ah, that’s the bobsled/skeleton team event.
Switzerland’s Beat Hefti is the favorite on home ice, particularly here at St. Moritz, the only natural ice track in the world. Some of its idiosyncrasies are in this fun video, where you can see how it’s carved out of the snow instead of built up like other bobsled runs:
Defending champion Steven Holcomb had a great start to the two-man season but has dropped off considerably over the last two months. The U.S. women have bounced on and off the podium — Elana Meyers is third in the World Cup, Jamie Greubel fifth and Jazmine Fenlator eighth.
The USA also is the defending team champion.
Lolo Jones? Nope, not on the U.S. team for this one. She has done pretty well in her races and kept her sense of humor after a crash:
boBsled crasH.was shaken up but thn World Champ @StevenLangton hugged me & asked if I was ok.I told @jazminefenlator to crash me more often
No Evan Lysacek, no Johnny Weir, no problem. For your U.S. Championships viewing pleasure, check the TV schedule; for your amusement, keep these predictions in mind:
Men: Jeremy Abbott, Ross Miner, Richard Dornbush
Women: Ashley Wagner, Mirai Nagasu, Gracie Gold (yes, Christina Gao had better Grand Prix results, but Gold has the higher score)
Pairs: Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir, Alexa Scimeca/Chris Knierim, Tiffany Vise/Don Baldwin (defending champ Caydee Denney/John Coughlin pair is out injured)
Dance: Meryl White/Charlie Davis, Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani, Madison Chock/Evan Bates
SPEEDSKATING
World Sprint Championships, the least interesting of the three championships the long-trackers hold each year but a fun event to catch if you happen to be in Salt Lake City this weekend.
Yuzuru Hanyu packs a lot of jumps into a short program. The Japanese teen’s leaping prowess gave him a world record 95.07 points in the short program at Skate America. Then he beat that this weekend in his home country with 95.32.
He won the NHK Trophy and qualified for the Grand Prix Final in Sochi, the 2014 Olympic site. But he won’t have an easy time getting back there in 15 months. FOUR of the six qualifiers for the men’s Final are from Japan.
Canada’s back-to-back world champion Patrick Chan is officially first, tying at 28 points (one first place, one second) with Hanyu and Takahiko Kozuka. Then it’s Tatsuki Machida at 26 points, tied with Daisuke Takahashi. Spain’s Javier Fernandez has the last spot with 24 points.
Japanese men won four of the six Grand Prix events. That’s one each for Hanyu, Kozuka and Machida, then one for Takahito Mura. But Mura had a bad run at Skate Canada, finishing eighth, so he’s only the third alternate. Fernandez and Chan have the other wins.
The U.S. skaters aren’t totally out of it. Jeremy Abbott (second in France, fifth at Skate America) is the first alternate. Ross Miner beat Fernandez to reach the podium at the NHK Trophy, which I still keep typing as “NHL Trophy.”
Check the men’s standings, and we’ll move to the others. Yes, the USA will be represented at the Final. Not as much as Japan. Or Russia.
Women
Ashley Wagner won in the USA and France. Japan’s Mao Asada won in China and Japan. They’re 1-2 headed into the Final. Then it’s Finland’s Kiira Korpi and another Japanese skater, Akiko Suzuki. Then two Russians, Julia Lipnitskaia and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.
Two more Americans, Christina Gao and Mirai Nagasu, are the first two alternates, ahead of yet another Japanese skater and another American, Agnes Zawadski. Add Gracie Gold in 12th, and the USA has five skaters in the top 12 along with three Russians, three Japanese skaters and Korpi. Shall we start a team event? (Women’s standings)
Ice dance
If you read the season preview, you won’t be surprised to see that the USA’s Meryl Davis/Charlie White and Canada’s Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir won their events. France’s Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat, third in last year’s Worlds, won the other two.
Then three other pairs each took second in their events. That’s your Grand Prix Final field. The top two alternates each placed third in their two events, but the USA’s Shibutani siblings (Maia and Alex) messed everything up by finishing third and fourth in their events.
Check the standings — this event is nothing if not predictable.
Pairs
Almost as predictable as ice dance. Russia’s Tatiana Voloshozhar/Maxim Trankov won both of their events.
Russia’s Vera Bazarova/Yuri Larionov and China’s Pang Qing/Tong Jian won the events without Voloshozhar/Trankov and finished second in the events with the top pair.
Russia’s Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirmov won without the top three and finished second to Pang/Tong.
Canada’s Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford finished second in each event — once to Kavaguti/Smirnov, once to Germany’s Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy.
The Germans only competed in one event, leaving space in the top six for one more pair. Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers/Dylan Moscovitch finished fourth in China, then placed second when only one of the top five pairs competed in Japan.
That squeezed out the USA’s Caydee Denney/John Coughlin, who finished third in each event.
Check the standings if you want to see all that in chart form.
Countries
So the 24 entries in the Grand Prix Final are set, pending injuries and illness. Country-by-country:
Admit it. You never thought David Beckham would be here as long as he was.
When I spoke with him in 2008, a year into the “experiment,” he was saying all the right things. Then over the years, he stuck with the Galaxy but had trouble convincing fans of his commitment to the team.
But in 2011, the last year of his original contract, he once again won over the fans (and maybe teammates). Winning MLS Cup didn’t hurt. And then he signed a two-year extension.
I can imagine fans clamoring for Grant Wahl to write Part 2 of The Beckham Experiment. But at this point, is there any doubt that the experiment worked? MLS is in infinitely better shape today than it was in 2007, and while plenty of other factors are at play (Seattle, other expansion, other business deals), Beckham’s presence surely has helped.
Elsewhere in myriad sports …
MLS: Beckham’s Galaxy held off the Sounders on what Taylor Twellman insists was a legit handball call. And the Dynamo sprayed beer all over their locker room at RFK Stadium.
Premier League: Tactics man Jonathan Wilson wonders if West Brom’s decision to split their management jobs between two people instead of one All-Encompassing Man of Total Power is paving the way for a prolonged stay in the top flight.
Field hockey: Should North Carolina’s seniors be disappointed with only one title out of their four appearances in the final? Or was Princeton due?
Figure skating: Fairfax County’s own Ashley Wagner is two-for-two on the Grand Prix circuit after her Trophee Bompard win in France, ensuring a U.S. presence at the Finals. Christina Gao has a spot in the top six in the standings, with fellow Americans Agnes Zawadzki and Mirai Nagasu among those who can knock her out this weekend. It’s a safe bet Meryl Davis and Charlie White will get there in ice dance. Caydee Denney and John Coughlin might make it in pairs.
Jeremy Abbott, second in France, is clinging to a spot in the top six of the men’s standings (note all the guys with 15, 13 and 11 points who are competing in Japan).
Speedskating: U.S. top-five finishes in the World Cup opener in Heerenveen, Netherlands:
– Heather Richardson, 1st, 1,000
– Heather Richardson, 2nd, 500 and 2nd, 500. Yes, they raced that distance twice.
That is all. Didn’t see Shani Davis in the results.
Bobsled/skeleton: Huge U.S. weekend. Steven Holcomb was first in two-man and second in four-man. And Katie Uhlaender won the women’s skeleton.
Cody Butner and Chuck Berkeley took second behind Holcomb and Steve Langton in the two-man.
The U.S. women’s bobsledders were fourth, fifth and eighth. Olympic track and fieldsters Lolo Jones and Tianna Madison had the week off.
More Olympic sports: Good results for the U.S. field hockey men and a few other athletes; see the roundup.
MMA: GSP beat up Condit, Tom Lawlor got robbed, and strikes to the back of the head are still illegal.
In Bellator, Marcin Held held a toe hold … OK, that’s awful. Anyway, Held got Rich Clementi to tap to a toe hold and Dave Jansen won a split decision over Ricardo Tirloni in the lightweight semifinals. Also, Marlon Sandro beat TUF alum Dustin Neace. Remember the fight where Akira tapped but said he didn’t? That was Neace.
You may have heard Lolo Jones got second in her World Cup bobsled debut with driver Jazmine Fenlator, but U.S. success went farther than that. Elana Meyers and Tianna Madison, the latter also a track and field Olympian, took third.
The men weren’t bad, either. Steven Holcomb/Steve Langton and Cory Butner/Chuck Berkeley finished 1-2 in the World Cup two-man opener. Holcomb was second in the four-man, with Nick Cunningham taking third in just his third World Cup race.
The skeleton crew had a few top-fives: John Daly and Kyle Tress 4-5 in the men’s race; slider/weightlifter Katie Uhlaender fifth in the women’s race with the best time of the third run.
Figure skating
Gracie Gold at Skate Canada last month: 151.57 points, seventh place.
Gracie Gold at the Rostelecom Cup over the weekend: 175.03, second place. Just 2.16 out of first. That’s what skating insiders would call “an improvement.”
Agnes Zawadzki also had a bit of an improvement, posting a personal-best 166.61 for third place.
Caydee Denney and John Coughlin also reached the podium, finishing third in pairs. Ice dancers Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani were fourth.
The men didn’t do quite as well. Johnny Weir had a rough time in the short program, then withdrew. Richard Dornbush was sixth.
Alpine skiing
Well she’s … speedy and 17! Our U.S. ski-slalom queen!
Yes, she’s far too young to get that Stray Cats reference, but Mikaela Schifrin was on the World Cup podium this weekend, finishing third in a slalom somewhere near the North Pole. Ted Ligety was 13th in the men’s race.
Wrestling
Big win for Tervel Diagnev over Russia’s Magomedgadzhi Nurasulov, who scored less than 0.05 points for every letter in his name, at the New York Athletic Club Invitational. Austin Trotman also beat one of the invited Russians and was named outstanding wrestler of the meet.
Basketball
Ready for a World Cup that won’t be sullied by the Netherlands’ negativity? Basketball is moving its world championship to soccer’s off-years and rebranding it as a World Cup. Better than World Series, at least.
Figure skating: If you like seeing Americans in fourth place, the Cup of China was the Grand Prix event for you! Mirai Nagasu, Adam Rippon and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock/Evan Bates all took fourth. Chock and Bates set a personal best with 149.54 points.
One surprise: Tatsuki Machida upset fellow Japanese skater Daisuke Takahashi.
Speedskating: The U.S. championships are complete, and the World Cup team will include a lot of familiar names — Shani Davis, Heather Richardson, Tucker Fredricks, Elli Ochowicz and more. Richardson won every distance at those championships.
MMA: The World Series of Fighting debut on NBC Sports Network (after an MLS playoff game) featured three quick knockouts (Andrei Arlovski, Anthony Johnson, newcomer Tyrone Spong) and one upset (Marlon Moraes over the increasingly indifferent Miguel Torres). Spong beat a guy with almost as much belly fat as I have.
Bellator also was knockout-heavy. Richard Hale advanced to the heavyweight final over winded opponent Thiago Santos, and Shahbulat Shamhalaev swarmed Mike Richman to advance to the featherweight final.
Up this week: U.S. women’s hockey in the Four Nations Cup.
Let’s rush out this wrapup before the power runs out:
Alpine skiing: The time it takes you to read this sentence is Ted Ligety’s margin of victory (2.75 seconds) in the season-opening World Cup giant slalom on the big glacier in Solden, Austria, the traditional opener of the World Cup season in which fans celebrate the first snows of the Alps, putting away for a moment their concerns about the state of the climate and the European economy, which continues to be plagued by crippling debt in a few countries while Germany, a traditional power in winter sports, ponders the fate of the Euro, which has never been fully supported in some portions of the British aristocracy, which was also concerned that Lindsey Vonn missed a gate and didn’t finish the opening women’s race, along with Julia Mancuso, whose mishap you can read about here.
Figure skating: Spain’s Javier Fernandez upset Canada’s Patrick Chan to win Skate Canada. Depending on your point of view, that’s either an inspiring first Grand Prix win for Spain or signs of trouble with one of Canada’s star athletes. American Ross Miner bounced back after a rough short program to finish fifth.
Better news for Canadian women: Kaetlyn Osmond edged Japan’s Akiko Suzuki by 1.29 points to win. Americans Gracie Gold and Caroline Zhang were seventh and ninth.
The U.S. pairs were the last two. The USA’s Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donahue were fifth in the ice dance, predictably won by Canadian greats Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
But if you want to look ahead to the Big Ice Dance Throwdown and compare scores, Virtue/Moir won Skate Canada with 169.41; the USA’s Meryl Davis and Charlie White won Skate America with 176.28.
Short-track speedskating: J.R. Celski was second in the 1,500 meters and fourth in the 1,000, and the U.S. men finished third in the relay in an otherwise dreary World Cup weekend for American skaters in Montreal.
Bobsled/luge/skeleton: Wikipedia currently lists 17 current sliding tracks in the world, with two more planned. It’s about to be 16. The Torino 2006 track will be dismantled.
Oh, it was scheduled to host a World Cup luge stop in December? Too bad.
That’s a Jethro Tull reference. Would you prefer Avril Lavigne? Some skater boys did pretty well over the weekend.
Short-track: A lot of world records fell over the weekend at the World Cup opener in Calgary, and J.R. Celski came up with one of the biggest, breaking the 40-second mark in the 500 meters. Celski also picked up a third-place finish, as did John-Henry Krueger, a discretionary pick for the World Cup squad who must have done some industrial smoothing to finish just behind Celski and Canadian favorite Charles Hamelin in the 500.
Canada’s Valerie Maltais took the women’s 1,000-meter record, though the overall World Cup leader at 1,000 is Britain’s Elise Christie.
Not a great weekend for the U.S. women, who finished eighth in the team classification. The men were a solid fourth, well ahead of China, despite finishing eighth in the relay.
Figure skating: Here, the U.S. women had a great weekend. For all my fretting over the “rise up and fade” tendencies they’ve had over the last few years, the results at Skate America speak for themselves: Ashley Wagner first, Christina Gao second. (On the downside, Rachael Flatt was ninth out of 10.)
Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dance so comfortably they probably could’ve tossed in a bit of the Chicken Dance toward the end. Caydee Denney and John Coughlin were a promising third in pairs.
So if you want to panic about anything from a U.S. standpoint, consider the men. Japan swept the podium, Jeremy Abbott was fifth, and the other U.S. men were in the bottom four.
MLS: The playoff field is set, with Columbus and Dallas falling short of the last spots. San Jose has the Supporters’ Shield, but L.A. defender Omar Gonzalez cares not for the Quakes’ style of play, accusing them of some off-the-ball ref-not-looking shenanigans. And Galaxy supporters group Angel City Brigade raises some pointed questions for security at Buck Shaw Stadium.
Women’s soccer: Germany announced its re-emergence, holding the USA to a 1-1 draw on the Fan Tribute Tour at Toyota Park, the former home of the Chicago Red Stars.
Swimming: Missy Franklin is going to Cal. Can’t blame her, but those of use who learned to swim at the University of Georgia may be a little sad to hear the news.
Triathlon: Gwen Jorgensen knows how to finish a season in style — second place in the last World Championships series race, moving her up to ninth on the year. Sarah Groff was ninth on the day, seventh on the year.
The U.S. men had a rougher time, but the USA also came away with several paratriathlon and age-group prizes. If only they had a category for “over-40, can’t stand cold water or running” entries.
Rowing: Want to see a frightening photo? Go to the Head of the Charles’ official site and wait for “Day 2 underway” to come around. Is this rowing or rugby?
Swimming: A lot of Olympic swimmers pass on the World Cup season, particularly after the Olympics, but Anthony Ervin and Jessica Hardy seem to be making up for lost time with a few wins on the circuit this weekend.
Also in the Team USA roundup: Katie Compton’s latest cyclocross medal and the Head of the Charles.
Figure skating has one of the more interesting competition series, spreading out its best competitors over the course of a season and building toward a couple of big events with the big names. So the big names are frequently active (unlike swimming or gymnastics) but they’re not facing each other every week (unlike skiing World Cup circuits).
It seems that the big names aren’t as American as they used to be. The U.S. men are indeed overdue at the World Championships — they haven’t medaled in the past three, tying the longest drought since the 70s — but Evan Lysacek is the reigning Olympic champion. The women’s results are more shocking — when Kimmie Meissner and Sasha Cohen placed first and third at the 2006 World Championships, who could’ve imagined they’d be the last U.S. medalists of the decade? In 2010, the U.S. women were kept off the Olympic podium for the first time since 1964.
And yet the USA has somehow become a juggernaut in ice dancing, with Meryl Davis and Charlie White picking up the torch from Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. The USA’s “A” team, which gets full funding, has one man, one woman, one pair and three ice dancing duos.
Storylines
– Comebacks: Olympic champion Evan Lysacek, the ever-entertaining Johnny Weir. Between them and consistent Jeremy Abbott, can the U.S. men make some noise this year?
– The great North American ice dancing rivalry: Meryl Davis and Charlie White (USA) vs. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Canada).
– Will China return to pairs podium? A decade of dominance ended suddenly at the 2012 Worlds.
– Some consistency from U.S. women? They’ve been through a cycle in which someone steps up, then fades. Then sometimes re-emerges. Meissner was only 16 when she won the 2006 world title. Mirai Nagasu was just 14 when she won the 2008 U.S. title, but she hasn’t won it since. Nagasu was fourth in the 2010 Games, with Rachael Flatt seventh.
The USA continues to have a steady parade of World Junior medalists, including sweeps in 2007 (Caroline Zhang, Nagasu, Ashley Wagner) and 2008 (Flatt, Zhang, Nagasu). Zhang and Wagner medaled again in 2009. Then Agnes Zawadzki took over for 2010 silver and 2011 bronze, followed by Gracie Gold in 2012.
A couple of other events have been kinder. The Four Continents Championship doesn’t have the strongest field, but the USA has managed several top-five finishes in the past five years, with Wagner winning last year. Alissa Czisny won the 2010 Grand Prix Final for the first U.S. podium in that event since 2003, and she was the only U.S. finalist last year.
Events
Grand Prix
Oct. 19-21, Skate America, Kent/Seattle, Wash.
Oct. 26-28, Skate Canada, Windsor, Ontario
Nov. 2-4, Cup of China, Shanghai
Nov. 9-11, Rostelecom Cup, Moscow
Nov. 16-18, Trophee Eric Bompard, Paris
Nov. 23-25, NHK Trophy, Miyagi, Japan
Dec. 6-9, Grand Prix Final, Sochi, Russia
U.S. Championships
Jan. 20-27, Omaha
World Championships
March 10-17, London, Ontario
Qualifying
For Grand Prix Final: A couple of skaters enter three of the six Grand Prix events, but most will enter two. Points are given for first, second, third, fourth, etc., and the skater’s top two performances are added up. Top six in each discipline make the final. The ISU makes this relatively easy to follow on its site.
For World Championships: The USA can send two men, two women (er, ladies, in figure skating terminology), two pairs and three ice dancing duos. U.S. Championship winners get automatic bids. The rest are selected by committee, based on recent performances in big events.
How to watch
Order a season pass at icenetwork.com before Oct. 22, and you can get a discounted rate of $19.95 (down from $39.95). That’ll give you the Grand Prix events, U.S. championships and several other events — some live, some not, all on demand.
NBC also will have a lot of delayed coverage, including all the Grand Prix events, and the network will go live during the U.S. championships. If you’re lucky enough to get NBC affiliate Universal Sports, you’ll have more options to catch re-broadcasts. The folks at icenetwork.com were kind enough to compile their schedule.
We don’t yet have broadcasting info for the World Championships.
We can only hope the broadcasts include this:
Names to know
Figure skating is one of the few sports to hold a World Championship the same year as the Olympics, sometimes diluting the talent pool at Worlds and letting some surprising names take world titles.
Women
– Yu-Na Kim (South Korea): Olympic champion. Coming into 2012-13 season, had posted the three best scores of all time (or at least since the current scoring system went into effect): 228.56 in 2010 Olympics, 210.03 at 2009 Trophee Bompard, 207.71 at 2009 Worlds). For sake of comparison, Sasha Cohen holds the U.S. record at 197.60 in 2003. She has spent a good bit of time in North America, working for years with Canadian Brian Orser before splitting with him awkwardly. Went on hiatus but is coming back for another run. She’s still skipping the Grand Prix season.
– Mao Asada (Japan): Olympic silver medalist, two-time world champion (2008, 2010). Struggled last season after the death of her mother. Two Grand Prix events: Cup of China, NHK Trophy
– Joannie Rochette (Canada): Olympic bronze medalist in an unforgettable story, competing in her home country just a couple of days after her mother’s death. Hasn’t decided whether to return to competition.
– Carolina Kostner (Italy): World champion after years as a perennial contender. Also won 2011 Grand Prix Final after finishing elsewhere on podium for years. After all that, she plans to skip the 2012 Grand Prix season. Also had controversy in offseason when her boyfriend, former Olympic walking champion Alex Schwazer, tested positive for EPO at the Olympics.
– Ashley Wagner (USA): The only woman on the U.S. A team. 2012 U.S. champion (previous high was 3rd in 2008 and 2010). 2012 Four Continents champion. Qualified for 2009 Grand Prix Final, finished 4th. Like Alissa Czisny, she spins clockwise, a relative rarity in figure skating. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, Trophee Bompard
– Mirai Nagasu (USA): 4th in 2010 Olympics. 7th in 2010 World Championships. U.S. Championships, 2008-2012: 1st, 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 7th. Switched coaches and training bases, moving away from Frank Carroll, to cut down on commute and get a change of scenery. One Grand Prix event: Cup of China
– Alissa Czisny (USA): 2010 Grand Prix Final champion, the last significant win by a U.S. skater. 2009 and 2011 U.S. champion (2nd in 2012, 10th in 2010). 5th in 2011 World Championships. Hindered by calf and hip injuries in the past year. One Grand Prix event: NHK Trophy
– Caroline Zhang (USA): 2007 world junior champion, then 2nd the next two years. U.S. Championships, 2008-2012: 4th, 3rd, 11th, 12th, 4th. Four Continents: 4th in 2009, 3rd in 2010 and 2012. Has a signature move called a pearl spin. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, Rostelecom Cup
– Agnes Zawadzki (USA): 2nd in 2010 World Junior Championships, 3rd in 2011. U.S. Championships, 2011-2012: 4th, 3rd. Two Grand Prix events: Rostelecom Cup, NHK Trophy
– Gracie Gold (USA): 2nd in 2012 World Junior Championships. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, Rostelecom Cup
– Christina Gao (USA): 5th in three straight U.S. Championships. Harvard Class of 2016. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, Trophee Bompard
– Rachael Flatt (USA): 2010 U.S. champion and Olympian (placed 7th). Successful in other U.S. Championships: 2nd in 2008/09/11, yet only on USA’s C-team. Has had some injury problems and was reprimanded and fined for not disclosing injury before 2011 World Championships. 6th in 2012 U.S. championships. Qualified for 2010 Grand Prix Final, finished 6th. Stanford student. One Grand Prix event: Skate America
– Patrick Chan (Canada): 2011 and 2012 world champion after two years as runner-up. Also two-time defending Grand Prix Final winner. Chinese-Canadian (born in Canada; parents from Hong Kong). Finished 5th in Vancouver. Has posted six of the best scores ever, including the record of 280.98 at the 2011 Worlds.
– Daisuke Takahashi (Japan): 2010 world champion and 2012 runner-up. Also second in Grand Prix Final last year. Three of the top 10 scores of all time.
– Evan Lysacek (USA): Olympic champion – the first U.S. skater to win Olympic gold since Brian Boitano in 1988. Hasn’t skated competitively since then. But he’s back. Also 2009 world champion, 2009 Grand Prix Final winner, 2007 and 2008 U.S. champion (medaled each year from 2005-2010). 4th in 2006 Olympics. Had been entered in Skate America but had to withdraw and might return in a smaller competition.
– Jeremy Abbott (USA): 9th in 2010 Olympics. U.S. champion in 2009, 2010 and 2012 (4th in 2007, 2008, 2011). 5th in 2010 World Championships (8th in 2012). Won 2008 Grand Prix Final. The only U.S. man on the A team, which means he gets full funding. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, Trophee Bompard
– Johnny Weir (USA): Like Lysacek, making a comeback after a couple of seasons off that included a judging stint on Skating with the Stars. Two-time Olympian (5th in 2006, 6th in 2010). 3rd in 2008 World Championships. Three-time U.S. champion (2004-2006). Two Grand Prix events: Rostelecom Cup, Trophee Bompard
– Adam Rippon (USA): 2008 and 2009 world junior champion, 2010 Four Continents champion, 6th in 2010 Olympics. Best U.S. finish: 2nd in 2012. He can do the Rippon Lutz (watch his arms) and a donut spin. Two Grand Prix events: Cup of China, NHK Trophy
– Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan): 2012 bronze medalist. Did an exhibition skate to a remix of The Doors’ Hello I Love You. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, NHK Trophy
– Brian Joubert (France): 2007 world champion and frequent world championship medalist, finishing in the top six each year from 2003 onward. Two Grand Prix events: Cup of China, Trophee Bompard
– Takahiko Kozuka (Japan): 2011 runner-up. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, Rostelecom Cup
– Ross Miner (USA): 3rd in 2011 and 2012 U.S. Championships. 3rd in 2012 Four Continents. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, NHK Trophy
– Richard Dornbush (USA): Big year in 2011: 2nd in U.S. Championships, 9th in Worlds. Two Grand Prix events: Rostelecom Cup, NHK Trophy
– Douglas Razzano (USA): A few years removed from juniors but made Grand Prix debut at last year’s Skate America. Best U.S. Championship: 5th in 2012. One Grand Prix event: Skate America
– Aliana Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (Germany): World champion in 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2008. World runners-up and Olympic bronze medalists in 2010. Stuck with coach Ingo Steuer while he was under scrutiny for past links to the Stasi. Savchenko formerly competed for Ukraine. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, Trophee Bompard
– Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov (Russia): Two-time world runners-up after pairing up in 2010. Until then, Volosozhar competed for Ukraine. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, Rostelecom Cup
– Caydee Denney/John Coughlin (USA): The only pair on the U.S. A team, returning for second season together. In first season, won U.S. Championships and placed 8th at Worlds. Denney skated at 2010 Olympics (13th) and won 2010 U.S. title with Jeremy Barrett. Coughlin won 2011 U.S. title and skated at 2011 Worlds (6th) with Caitlin Yankowskas. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, Rostelecom Cup
– Lindsay Davis/Mark Ladwig (USA): New pair, with 20-year-old Davis joining 32-year-old Ladwig. With Amanda Evora, Ladwig was a three-time U.S. medalist and 2010 Olympian (10th). Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, NHK Trophy
– Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir (USA): 5th in last two U.S. Championships; 3rd in 2009 World Juniors. Short program includes Stray Cat Strut, apparently the Brian Setzer Orchestra version. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, NHK Trophy
– Tiffany Vise/Don Baldwin (USA): U.S. Championships since 2010: 8th, 6th, 9th. Also 6th at 2011 Skate America. A “mirror pair,” inclined to spin in opposite directions. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, Rostelecom Cup
– Caitlin Yankowskas/Joshua Reagan (USA): New pair. Yankowskas won 2011 U.S. title and skated at 2011 Worlds (6th) with John Coughlin. Reagan took a long break from skating after suffering an eye injury. Two Grand Prix events: Cup of China, NHK Trophy
– Gretchen Donlan/Andrew Speroff (USA): Young pair; 4th in 2012 U.S. Championships. One Grand Prix event: Skate America
– Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA): Olympic silver medalist. 2011 World champions. 2010-12 Grand Prix Final champions; unbeaten in last two Grand Prix seasons. 2009-12 U.S. champions (4 times). Posted top three scores of all time and six of top 10. Two Grand Prix events: Skate America, NHK Trophy
– Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (Canada): Olympic and world champion, reclaiming the title from Davis/White last year. Posted four of the top 10 scores of all time. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, Rostelecom Cup
– Madison Hubbell/Zach Donahue (USA): A-team. Second season together. Last year: 3rd in U.S. Championships, 10th in Worlds, 5th in Four Continents, 6th in Skate America. Two Grand Prix events: Skate Canada, Trophee Bompard
– Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA): A-team. Sister/brother duo was 2nd in 2009 World Juniors, 4th in 2010 World Juniors, then 3rdd at senior-level 2011 Worlds. Dropped to 8th in 2012. Also two-time U.S. runner-up (2011-12). Won 2011 NHK Trophy. Two Grand Prix events: Rostelecom Cup, NHK Trophy
– Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus (USA): 7th in 2011 World Juniors; 6th in 2012 U.S. Championships. One Grand Prix event: Skate America
– Lynn Kreingkrairut/Logan Giuletti-Schmitt (USA): 4th in 2012 U.S. Championships; best finish to date. Competed in three Grand Prix events, finishing 6th in 2010 Skate America and 2011 NHK Trophy. One Grand Prix event: Skate America
– Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA): Second season together. Last year: 5th in U.S. Championships, 5th in Trophee Bompard, 4th in Skate Canada. Bates skated in 2010 Olympics (11th) with Emily Samuelson. One Grand Prix event: Cup of China
Year-by-year:
2006 Olympics: Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov (Russia), Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto (USA), Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov (Ukraine)
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