I just realised we don't have a Max Aaron thread. Rectified!

To start us off, here's his interview with The Skating Lesson. 50 minutes of fantastic Max, talking Carmen, hockey, a broken back, the two rings he really wants (one of them is NOT what you think ;) ), life after skating and working on the whole package.

http://www.theskatinglesson.com/max-aaron-interview/

Five favorite things with Zhang and Bartholomay
Both skaters agree on favorite city ... favorite food, not so much



And from http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news (Jun 6)

Even if he doesn't come away with the olympic medal we all know he deserves, Jeremy is one of those skaters I truly look forward to watching and anticipate what he will do the next season. He is unmatched in artistry, understanding of the music, creativity in the men's field.

Denis Ten launching his first ice show "Denis Ten&friends" and in a rather fancy company: Lambiel, Joubert, Slutskaya, Carolina, others. Rather fast, especiallly for the country which is not some ISU monster :p. The show will take place on May 25th in Astana (the tickets price made me giggle- about $7-$27 per ticket): http://vesti.kz/figure_skating/173724/

Finally a thread for arguably the best skater of all-time, Michelle Kwan! :):):):)

No thread for Kanako? We got to change that. Born in November 1994 in Nagoya. 2011 Worlds debuted at 11. 2012 she was 5th already and this year just nearly there with here 4th place finish. Some people hate her jumping technique, others adore her spins. Is she the next leading lady in Japan when Mao Asada will retire? I don't know, but I just adore and enjoy Kanako. Each season I like her more and I'm curious if she will be able to overcome her weaknesses and maybe medal at Worlds in Tokyo next year! She seems like a very positive girl and is not afraid of the ice.

While we're celebrating new discoveries from this season, I though Anna Pogorilaya deserved a thread. After all, Anna has medalled in all four of her international outings this year! I found that impressive when Yu Na Kim did it, and I find it impressive in this 14 year old!

Russia is lucky to have so many great young girls, but even in Russia, that kind of record is not a given.

I haven't found a website for her, but here is her ISU bio
http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00054344.htm

Here is what tracings has:
http://tracings.net/pogo-anna.html

I hope someone sends the tracings guys a picture of Anna!

And here's Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Pogorilaya

Her best scores were at the JGPF 2012, so here's links to her performances:

Sp JGPF 2012 to Songs from The Victorious City by Anne Dudley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQCDAR-gcmU
LP JGPF 2013 to Danse de Phryne from "Faust" by Charles Gounod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRoWafKsQ7I
Junior Worlds 2013 Exhibition to Tango de Roxane from Moulin Rouge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMfdtzp7jmo

Since Nicky Slater reckons that she is a star for the future, I thought I would get in early and start a fan thread for Jenni Saarinen! ;) :biggrin:

OK, so the fact that I have a specific question I want to ask about her might have something to do with it too... ;)

Ever since I saw Jenni’s name on the entry list for the 2013 Junior Worlds, I have been wondering something:

Does anybody know if Jenni is in any way related to the (still much-missed) Finnish motorbike racer Jarno Saarinen?

Jarno Saarinen was the 250cc World Champion in 1972, and is still the only Finn to win a tarmac motorcycle world championship. But he died the following year in a crash during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

As I wasn’t born until 12 years after his accident, I don’t know anything about Jarno’s family. So, I don’t know if he managed to have any children, or if he had any siblings, that Jenni might be descended from.

Now, I know from her ISU Bio that Jenni is originally from Espoo, while Jarno was from Turku. Although the 2 towns are 100 miles apart, that is not much in a country as large as Finland. So, it might be possible that they are related in some way.

On the other hand, in a country with as small a population as Finland’s, it is possible that Saarinen is a very common surname! So, it might be just coincidence.

I just don’t know enough about Finland to judge whether it is plausible.

So, can anybody shed any light on the matter?

Before I go, may I just congratulate Jenni on her results in Junior Worlds. She was the youngest girl in the competition, so to finish 14th overall out of such a big field was brilliant! Considering she is so young, her performances in both the Short (19th/45) and the Free (13th/24) were very impressive.

OK, so she is not yet in the same league as Elena Radionova or Annabelle Prölß, who were born in the same year but are already big stars. But the potential is there... ;) :biggrin:

CaroLiza_fan

u r gorgeous. This lady deserved to win jr worlds. I am tired of ur calls being applied to some no others. dont give a hoot. she is far better than the russian infants she beat. This is a truly elegant skater. Her Black Swan rivals Ashey's and is more powerful. She skates with speed in a packed LP. Cesario should get more buzz.

Has anyone else noticed that Sasha's Site is finally back in a big way???

For a long time, even the domain name SashaCohen.com was gone (this happened after her page stopped being updated following the 2006 Olympics). Then it was back up for some time this year and she's got it back up, completely redesigned and promoting new skates and snap socks! ...as you can tell ]I am a bit of a fan. Just a bit. ;)

It looks like she is taking it one day at a time and working on some great things. Then too she had that awesome US Championship performance. It gives me hope! To this day I wonder what would have happened if she didn't have that groin injury at the Turin Olympics... Maybe one day... In spite of her odd tendency to "fall off the beam" :confused: she is the only skater that takes my breath away--it is so obvious she aspires for perfection, and I hope she can reach that goal. :)

This thread is for Han Yan (first name: Han, last name: Yan) from China.

Yan made his senior international debut at the 2013 Four Continents Championships in Osaka, Japan, where he took the bronze medal with a personal best score of 235.22 (SP: 85.08, LP: 150.14).

Yan’s SP performance at 2013 4CC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5_PmrOdIaY

Yan started skating at the age of 5. He used to train in Harbin, but has moved to train in Beijing starting this year. He won the gold medal at the 2012 World Junior Championships, becoming the first Chinese to win the men’s junior world title.

Yan’s favorite skaters:
- Patrick Chan
- Tomas Verner


Some links:

Han Yan’s Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Han...gure_skater%29

Han Yan’s Chinese Wiki
http://baike.baidu.com/view/3573950.htm

Han Yan’s Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter)
http://weibo.com/u/1991083414


Yan is only 16! And he already has a great foundation (i.e. incredible speed, amazing ice coverage, great flow, effortless jumps, good presentation, musicality, etc) which he will only continue to build on as he gets more experience from the senior circuit. With polishing and better choreographed programs, there is no doubt that Han Yan is the future for China.

I thought that it was about time that we started a thread for CZ in the Fan Fests section.

I heard that she announced what music she will be skating to next season.

Does anybody know what that is?




http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5s...2#.UQ1dpqvN58E

http://www2.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/N...udkuV0Epwl.jpg

http://www.usfsa.org/content/skating...9cvr_large.jpg

http://photography.ice-dance.com/cac...8-0314_450.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2...ashao1_500.jpg

I think she deserves her thread here.
3-3-3. WOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmWoGTrqko4

Some posters keep using Plushenko's threads to gush over Alexei Yagudin. Now, we all know Plushenko wouldn't mind :biggrin: but I think Alexei deserves his own love thread. :love:
Maybe it's more fun to be offtopic on Plushy's threads :rolleye:, but I invite all Alexei's fans to post here long and often. :hb::rock:

I have become a huge fan of this team over the last couple seasons and I really think they have a lot of potential. They also seem like really cool people as well as great skaters.

Any other fans? :cool:

I was surprised that the "Goddess on Ice" did not have a thread in Fan Fest. So I am going to gush now. lol

Here is her SP from Golden Spin of Zagreb courtesy of let's talk. Not the best quality video but Carolina is spot on, her jumps look good,
amazing speed her connection to the music is wonderful and that footwork secton at the end, Oh My!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY5GW01udZ0

I saw the the protocols in the Golden Spin thread and noticed that her PC's are low. One judge gave her a 6.75 for P/E :rolleye:
She may be a little rusty but 6.75???

Reading our comments in the various threads, I realized that our best ice dancers have a lot of fans even outside Italy, so I created this thread.
Just to start, I collected some of their best programs of the last seasons:
2010-2011 FD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjQXgza8PGU
2011-2012 SD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWTGw...=results_video
2012-2013 FD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFO-tTUgb1I

Excerpt: Fernandez delivered the program of his career to win the free skating portion of the event by a margin of 1.3 points. Three quad jumps (a toe and two Salchows), a triple Axel, and five more triples were worth 178.43 (95.93/82.50). The Spaniard’s only mistake was doubling a triple loop. He got 258.62 in total.

“I tried a triple Axel and it was not coming,” said the student of Brian Orser about his jump layout, “so I started working on the quads in practice last season. This season I’m doing it in competition. Of course, I’m very happy with tonight’s performance.”

More...

What a phenomenal year for Kaetlyn Osmond :)

She win Nebelhorn Trophy, win Skate Canada and she has completely prove to Japanese that she is a figure skater to watch for World because at her last competition at Skate Canada Challenge (5-9 december), she delivered a performance superior to Mao Asada who won the Grand Prix Final.

She earn 198.70 at Skate Canada Challenge this year!
http://results.skatecanada.ca/2012-2...catResults.pdf
http://results.skatecanada.ca/2012-2...gesDetails.pdf
http://results.skatecanada.ca/2012-2...gesDetails.pdf

Kaetlyn is greatly improved and she has no pressure when she competes compared to other skaters.

I think this year that she is able to get the gold medal at the world championships. Why not, Yu-Na Kim and Mao Asada in their first year Senior and world championships have finished 2nd and 3rd respectively, while I think Kaetlyn is able to do the same and surprise the world with her superb programs. I love her skating :love:

What are your thought about Kaetlyn Osmond this season ? Do you think that she has the potential to medal at the world championships and do you think that she is someone to watched at the next Olympic Games?

The best!

This is a thread for Li Zijun (李子君) of China.

Her name can be pronounced as Ztze - Juen two separate word in Chinese Mandarin, and she shares the surname Li as the legendary Bruce Lee :) Hope she will become the next big star for China, as well... they could really do with one!

ZiJun put on a life time best at the recent NHK 2012 and brought best results for Chinese Ladies for over a decade at age 15 breaking the key 170 barrier with a total score of 174.11.

She had the 2nd highest TES score at her FS with the biggest jump combination 3F+3T of the day where she received good GOEs and 10.60
She ranked 2nd in TES for her SP as well where she had a 3T3T combo, 2nd highest combo only to Akiko's 3T3T.

Her choreographers includes
- Karen Kwan
- 2011/2012 SP Jiang Hailan, LP David Wilson.
- Current season Jiang Hailan SP "Dark eyes", Lori Nichol LP "Sleeping Beauty".

Her favourite skater is
- Yuna Kim

Her Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Zijun

Her Baidu (Chinese Wiki)
http://baike.baidu.com/view/2816812.htm

Her own weibo (Chinese twitter/blog)
http://t.qq.com/lizijunangel

Her fans weibo
http://www.weibo.com/u/1528896735
http://q.weibo.com/914651

Obviously she is still very young, and physically she is not quite there yet (power, speed, strength etc) but there's a quiet sweetness and serenity about her skating that I really like and is a lovely foundation to build upon. With more life experience her expressions will improve (just like the Russian super babies). She along with BingWa and KeXing are the Chinese skating future for the ladies. Hope they will do well.

ETA-I copied this to Fan Fests, because it's clear Ross "Boss" Miner has a lot of fans at GS!


As I (and many others) pointed out on the NHK Men's FS thread, Ross is a very underrated skater. But now he has the highest overall SB score out of the U.S. men. And that 4S was beautiful in the FS (though he missed it in the SP). I think he needs more work on making it consistent. But given his past work with his 3A -- I do think this is possible.

Does anyone think he can rise up the ranks and perhaps even win? Let's discuss.

I believe this young lady also deserves a thread here ;)

If there's one for Tessa and Scott, there should be one for amazing Meryl and Charlie:biggrin:

I noticed that there isn't a fan thread for Tessa and Scott (my favorite ice dance team)
Let's use this thread to bask in Tessa and Scott's amazing skating!

She is so great! I hope she'll make the gpf and WIN it haha:love::cool::rock:
She is UNIQUE! One in a....thousand) Her spins are her trademark!

Plushenko is Just 30!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWZtD7IUNr4 more than 1.033.000 viewers :) amazing video

This thread was opened in honor of Evgeni Plushenko, who will be 30 in 03 November. No one can deny his results, and many people believe that he is the best skater after II. World War. President of ISU Mr Cinquanta told to Gorshkov (http://www.rg.ru/2010/11/23/plushenko.html) :
Президент ИСУ Оттавио Чинкванта говорил мне, что считает Плющенко, возможно, лучшим одиночником всех послевоенных времен.
google translater:
ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta told me that he thinks Plushenko probably the best single skater of the postwar era.

He deserves this thread. He has the most titles and the longest career, the people familiar with the name and love him. He proved he is really a legend. He was a teenager when he started to win competitions, and year after year we are amazed by his consistency. He gave so much to figure skating. He is an incredible athlete.
Six days time and he will celebrate his birthday, I would like to do a presentation of his career from the beginning to the present. I'm trying to make it interesting, because he's basically an interesting and exciting personality.

Main results( Wikipedia):

He is the 2006 Winter Olympics gold medalist, 2002 Winter Olympics silver medalist, and 2010 Winter Olympics silver medalist, three-time (2001, 2003, 2004) World champion, seven-time (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012) European champion, a four-time Grand Prix Final champion and a nine-time (1999–2002, 2004–2006, 2010, 2012) Russian national champion.

Plushenko's technical achievements are numerous. He is one of the few male skaters to perform the Biellmann spin. He was the first skater in the world to perform a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop-double loop jump (4–3–2) combination in competition, at the 1999 NHK Trophy (he has since landed his 4–3–2 combination 26 times so far). He is the first skater to have landed a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop-triple loop (4–3–3) combination in competition, at the at the GPF Final 2002 (he has since landed his 4–3–3 combination four times so far). Plushenko is also the first skater to land a triple toe loop-triple toe loop-triple loop-double loop (3–3–3–2) combination, which was at the 2005 "ARD Gala". At the European Championships, he landed a six jump combination (3–3–2–2–2–2) in his exhibition program. He has landed a four jump combination; 4 toe loop-3 toe loop-2 loop-2 loop, at the World Championships in 2001. Plushenko has landed a consistent quadruple toe loop in competition, and has also landed a quadruple salchow in Samara, Russia at the 2004 "Second stage of Cup of Russia". It is estimated that he has landed a total of about 100 quads in competition.

At the age of 16, Plushenko was the youngest male skater to ever receive a perfect score of 6.0. He received a total of seventy five 6.0s before the new Code of Points judging system was introduced, most of them were presentation marks!
Plushenko is the only male figure skater in the modern history of the sport to have won three Olympic medals in singles (Gillis Grafström won four in the early years of the sport, from 1920–1932).[62]

Biography:

If anyone would like to read his biographical novel, can download it: http://www.mediafire.com/?z9ziocao3m3a1
(We could know why he not became an actor in USA…)
Very sincere book. This is not an official translation, one of his fans translated it into english , for free, she was working on it for six month, and then said that Plushy is a chosen man. But someone don't want to read, I briefly summarize…

Early years:

Plushenko was born in Solnechny, Khabarovsk Krai,Siberia, Soviet Union. (Solnechny means Sonny, and his hair are the reasons why the Japanese fans call him Sonny boy) His parents were poor but honest workers. They worked on Baikal-Amur Mainline, but Plushy was constantly sick, and they have moved to Volgograd. Since he frequently suffered from colds, his mother decided he needed exercise and enrolled him in figure skating lessons at age four.

1992: short videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZegtnW4RVYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40M3l2jZ35w he was cute and very talented

When he was eleven years old, Plushenko's ice rink in Volgograd was forced to close. He was then sent to Saint Petersburg without parents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_fgqwyMuYk he adores his mother.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixm3FTDIR_U the apartment where he lived alone in St. Petersburg…by CTV

Plushenko made quick progress on the international scene under Mishin's tutelage.

Mishin, one of the great wisecracking storytellers in skating, loves to describe 11-year-old Plushenko's arrival at the famed Yubileyny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg: "He looked like a cheap chicken, very green and very blue and no fat .... very ecological!"

-His first debut on WJCH, 1995/96 season, 6th place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRZoZWEzCYQ sooo cute
-As a 14-year-old, he won the 1997 World Junior Championships, this victory made him the youngest World Junior Champion ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwutW...eature=related

1998.
At 15, he finished second at the senior European Championships and he finished third at the senior 1998 World Championships. This victory made him the youngest World medalist ever.
WCH SP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7h-u...feature=relmfu Dick Button
ECH LP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6o9V...eature=related very good skating
WCH LP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOcGn...feature=relmfu Dick Button, Plushy is funny!!!
Exhibition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2st17...feature=relmfu unbeliveable! he has innate artistry
Interesting video:
1998 Worlds K&C after LP - Plushenko marks and Yagudin reaction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMwbf...ure=plpp_video

(Sorry my bad english)

This girl needs a fan thread! I absolutely adored her at Skate America, mistakes and all, and I really like that she is skating like a maturing young lady!

Also I love this. She looks good in yellow!

http://web.stagram.com/p/312044876784293967_51538413

Hey, wait a minute! There's no Mao fan fest thread! So here's one. Have at it, Mao fans!

Has anyone seen her new Swan Lake video? It's linked to in the relevant thread in The Edge. It's lovely, and she looks as if she's well on her way to a good season.

It's clear from the U.S. Ladies thread that Mirai has a lot of loyal fans. And she should. When she's on, she can be magical. Regardless of the result, she's worthy of a fan thread. :biggrin:

Hoping we'll see a great 2012-2013 season from her.

We understand that everyone has their favorites, and this is the place to gush :)!

Please remember that this forum is not exempt from the Guidelines. As always, be respectul to each others threads when posting and enjoy!