Weir Jumps from Show Ring to Ice Rink

When he was a young lad, Johnny Weir wanted to jump on horses, not on ice. Since his father was raised on a horse farm, it was only natural that Johnny would learn to ride. An accomplished rider by the age of nine, Weir competed in a variety of equestrian events with his pony, My Blue Shadow, a dappled gray Arabian-Shetland cross. He won lots of ribbons and even competed in the Devon Horse Show. But then a couple of events conspired to change his life.

First came the explosion of televised figure skating after the 1994 Olympics. As his mother was watching the skating, it caught Weir’s interest, so he thought he’d try out some of the jumps himself in his basement on roller skates. That…

2001-02 Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating: Highlights

Strange and interesting judging was the talk of the figure skating world following the ISU Grand Prix Final, which took place in Kitchener, Canada from December 13-16.

Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Viktor Kraatz’s Michael Jackson medley earned them the gold medal and the title of crowd favorites. Initially, the scoreboard listed Anissina and Peizerat as the overall winners, and the capacity crowd roared to its feet when the correct standings were announced later in the competition. The Canadians have not defeated the French in a major competition in nearly four years. Ranked only fourth in last year’s World Championships, Bourne and Kraatz earned scores up to a perfect 6.0 for presentation from the U.S. judge, but they will face a tougher, primarily Eastern European judging panel at the Olympics.

Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat had beaten Bourne and Kraatz soundly at Trophee Lalique, but the French team’s “Liberta” free dance lacked athleticism and received a rather lukewarm reception from the crowd….

Lang and Tchernyshev Look Forward to Olympic Year

United States ice dance champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev took their third straight title in 2001. They won the Four Continents Championship in 2000 and finished ninth at Worlds in 2001, their third year in the top ten. Boosted by Tchernyshev’s entrance into U. S. citizenship, the skaters are setting their sights on the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. They already have experience competing in the cavernous arena, taking a silver medal behind Canada’s Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz at the 2001 Four Continents Championships.

Lang started skating at the age of 8 after seeing the Ice Capades. A talented ballerina, it seemed like she was destined for the stage rather than the ice rink, but Naomi opted for…

Leray and Osseland Team Up in Pairs

France’s Marie-Pierre Leray is back in figure skating after a two-year absence. This time she’s skating pairs, her first love, with Nicolas Osseland. The duo hope to challenge World bronze medalists Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis for the French title and qualify for the Olympics and Worlds in pairs. Leray already has one French pairs gold medal from her first senior season with Frederic Lipka in 1993, when the team beat Abitbol and Bernadis.

Leray discovered figure skating when she was about 6-7 years old. “We used to go to the pool on Sunday, but one day we went to the ice rink. I started as a hobby and first I went once a week, then twice a week, then twice a day….

2001 American Open Figure Skating Championships: Highlights

The brainchild of former U.S. medalist Scott Williams, the American Open is the only professional competition that is truly open to all professional skaters. As host Brian Boitano put it, it is a “competition for the skaters run by the skaters.” The scoring system is a unique hybrid with six former skaters assigning scores solely to individual categories, such as jumps, footwork, and originality, and three “celebrity” judges who assign scores based solely on audience appeal.

This year’s edition of the American Open takes place in a full-size arena, the First Union Center in Philadelphia, for the first time. The field is also the most competitive to date, with five Olympic or World medalists competing.

The event began with the dance competition, where 1998 Olympic silver medalists Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov took first place with 69.1 points out of a possible 70, the second-highest score earned among any of the competitors. Performing many of the required elements of…

2001 NHK Trophy: Highlights

The 2001 NHK Trophy Kumamoto, Japan at the Aqua Dome, November 28 – December 2, 2001, the final event of a series of six competitions before the Grand Prix Final.

Uzbekistan’s Tatiana Malinina took first place in a depleted field to qualify for the final remaining berth in Grand Prix Final. With the controversial last-minute withdrawals of Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya, Malinina was able to accumulate enough points to vault ahead of Angela Nikodinov, who placed third in two tougher events where she did face Butyrskaya and Slutskaya, and where she beat Malinina by three places. The ISU’s method of assigning Grand Prix points has come under fire recently, and there is speculation that the system of assigning Grand Prix points may move more toward the system used to determine world rankings, where skaters earn points by finishing ahead of other skaters.

Competing in NHK as a non-scoring event, Nikodinov could have secured her own spot by placing second. Instead,…

Bulgarian Dancers Triumph Over Injuries to Reach Top Ten

One of the most inspiring performances at the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships was that of Albena Denkova and her partner Maxim Staviski. The 5-time Bulgarian champions became the first ice dancers from their country to finish in the top ten at Worlds a year after Denkova was severely injured at the 2000 Worlds and hospitalized for months, unable to walk.

The saga began at the last practice before the free dance in Nice when U. S. dancer Peter Tchernyshev’s blade slashed through Denkova’s leg less than an inch above her boot, severing two tendons and a muscle. Rushed to the emergency room, Denkova endured a lengthy operation to reassemble her shattered leg, then remained hospitalized in Nice for a week before being…

2001 Cup of Russia: Highlights

The 2001 Cup of Russia competition was held in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Ice Palace, November 23-25, 2001. This is the fifth of a series of six competitions before the Grand Prix Final which is to be held in December in Ontario, Canada.

Russia’s Evgeny Plushenko attempted to earn a place in record books with a quadruple lutz, but the nineteen-year old fell on the attempt and also went down on the ensuing quadruple toe loop. Nevertheless, a full arsenal of triple jumps was enough to keep the World Champion ahead of a largely undecorated field.

Fellow Russian Roman Serov jumped from fifth in the short program to second overall, but a disappointing tenth-place finish at Skate Canada gives him no hope of advancing to the Grand Prix Final.

bronze medalist Ivan Dinev has an excellent chance to earn the final berth to the Grand Prix Final with any medal at this week’s NHK Trophy. The American competitor, Matt Savoie of…