Middle Atlantics | Golden Skate

Middle Atlantics

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
Senior Men registered to compete are: Geoffry Varner (2006 U.S. Nationals junior men's/Junior GP Final bronze medalist and scheduled for NHK Trophy in Japan) and David Weintraub (previously competed as a junior & novice at Nationals).

Senior Ladies: The two main contendors appear to be Christine Zukowski (6th in her senior debut at 2006 Nationals and also the current World Junior bronze medalist; she's being monitored here and is scheduled to debut on the Sr. GP in France and Japan) and Ashley Wagner (gold medal in the Courchevel JGP last month; not sure if she has tested up to senior or is just trying the waters here). Others who have had good results so far this season include: Taylor Firth, Chloe Katz, Jamie Kim, Jessica Martino. Past Nationals competitors are Suzanne McDonald (2004 as a senior) and Krissa Miller (2003 as a senior).

Junior Ladies include: Jane Ruan, Kaela Pflumm (also a JGP pair skater), Tamar Katz (competes internationally for ISR);
Junior Men: Adam Rippon, Daniel Raad, Jeremy Anderson (3 past Nationals competitors in junior and/or novice);
Novice Men: Zachary DeWulf (2006 Novice Nationals competitor), Alexander Aiken (2006 Intermediate silver medalist);
Novice Ladies: Kristine Musademba (2006 U.S. Intermediate champ) and Ksenia Makarova ('06 North Atlantic Regional Intermediate champ).
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
There are other children of famous/successful skaters scheduled to compete at Mid-Atlantics as well.
Novice Ladies:
Ksenia Makarova ('06 North Atlantic Regional Intermediate champ).
FYI, Makarova is the daughter of Oleg Makarov & Larissa Selezneva, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalists in pairs from the Soviet Union -- see: http://www.pairsonice.net/profileview.php?pid=61

Also competing:
Artour Dmitriev, Jr. (Intermediate Men) and Victoria Petrenko (Preliminary Ladies), daughter of Viktor and Nina Petrenko (Nina choreographed Julia Sebestyen's 2006-07 programs, among others).

Just heard that Emily Hughes is reportedly a last-minute entry in Senior Ladies. :)
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
oh, ok. what is it then? Just some random "fluff" regional event or something?
 
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groovytriples

Spectator
Joined
Feb 28, 2005
it's not a fluff event. it's the last big competition befoe regionals, just like california has golden west, we have middle atlantics
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
oh, ok. what is it then? Just some random "fluff" regional event or something?
Club competitions are important to skaters in the Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, Junior and Senior levels who preparing to compete in the Regional Championships in October (to qualify for Nationals at these 5 levels) and/or skaters like Emily Hughes, who is preparing for international competitions this fall. There have been periodic discussions here at GS about the results and highlights from various major U.S. club competitions, such as Broadmoor Open in June, Liberty and Skate Detroit in July, and Golden West in Sept.

Mid-Atlantics is primarily for North Atlantic regional skaters (New York is in the North Atlantic region), but there are quite a few skaters from the New England, South Atlantic and even Eastern Great Lakes (includes Ohio) regions -- for example, Carol Heiss Jenkins coaches in Ohio and has a few skaters competing in NYC this weekend.

ETA: I saw Johnny Weir land his first triple axel in competition at the Mid-Atlantics comp. in Sept. 2000 (he was very happy and excited! :)), several months before his "surprise" 6th place senior men's debut at 2001 Nationals in Boston and his World Junior gold medal.
 
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Pixie Cut

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
oh, ok. what is it then? Just some random "fluff" regional event or something?

It's called a non-qualifying competition. They exist all over this country. The Boston Open is this weekend also. They used to be more important, because skaters had fewer opportunities to compete. But these events are still interesting.
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
Just heard that Emily Hughes may have withdrawn from Mid-Atlantics on Friday. Withdrawals are quite common at club competitions, BTW.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Just heard that Emily Hughes may have withdrawn from Mid-Atlantics on Friday. Withdrawals are quite common at club competitions, BTW.
Emily actually competed in Mid As just before her Nats debut. It's a good place to have your practice when you don't get invited to the Cheesefests.

Joe
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Does one consider events like Campbell's, etc. to be major events? When I say major I'm referring to all National championships, Worlds, and Olys.

I've heard people refer to events like Campbell's, etc. as "fluff" events. IMO, "cheesefest" is a much more demeaning term than "fluff" (BTW I didn't intend it to be a putdown, it was just a way of saying "non-major") and it's used a heck of a lot more often by figure skating fans.
 
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Pixie Cut

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
I've heard people refer to events like Campbell's, etc. as "fluff" events. IMO, "cheesefest" is a much more demeaning term than "fluff" (BTW I didn't intend it to be a putdown, it was just a way of saying "non-major") and it's used a heck of a lot more often by figure skating fans.

Campbell's is, in effect, a made-for-television event. It exists because ABC pays USFS to make it happen. It's format has changed multiple times over the course of the ABC contracts.

A non-qualifying competition doesn't have the impact of a qualifying event, like regionals or sections, but it is a relatively serious event - especially for young skaters and skaters who don't compete in the big big leagues.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
I don't consider either Campbell's or Marshall's, competitions made for TV, to be a major event. When skaters who've won one or the other talk about the titles they've won, these are not among the first mentioned (if they're mentioned at all). One thing they do provide to the skaters is money---much more money than they can win at GP events.

With the ISU events now on cable/satellite only, the 'cheesefests' allow a TV audience without cable or satellite to see some top international stars of figure skating do their thing.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I really appreciate you guys here for answering my questions...I've learned so much just by asking and learning from you guys. :)

With the ISU events now on cable/satellite only, the 'cheesefests' allow a TV audience without cable or satellite to see some top international stars of figure skating do their thing.

The issue is now, does having FS events on OTA TV bring in viewers without cable? I don't know about the ratings that these events have been getting lately but I don't know if they're that much higher than the events shown on ESPN. I really think that starting next season ALL figure skating will either be on cable or premium programming (in the US, of course). Maybe ABC might continue to show parts of US Nationals but especially now with ESPN taking over ABC sports operations, I think they just might move everything to the cable channel and leave ABC for the (college) football and basketball (the latter of which I don't mind at all :) )
 
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Joined
Mar 14, 2006
OK, a tiny report on my first live skating competition, from a completely untrained eye! I only saw the Novice Ladies Final LP.

Kristine Musademba was by far the best - strong, sure, and elegant, no mishaps, and the best music and choreography of the bunch (flamenco). I'm sure we'll see more of this one. She's also a beautiful young lady and looks mature beyond her years (almost 14) - I would guess that the puberty monster came and went already without doing her any damage.

Ksenia Makarova seemed even better in warmup, but fell twice during her FP, including once toward the beginning. She came back with spirit, but it wasn't a great skate.

The others all had significant errors though some of them were quite lovely. There were some great jumps and jump combos but at this stage of my knowledge I didn't even attempt to take notes. Unfortunately I lost my "jump recognition" cheat sheet on the way to the rink.

Some surprises:

* The Novice group has a huge range of maturity from little girls to almost senior-looking young women.

* These young ladies are spiral-challenged (compared to where they are on jumps and spins)! No wonder Sasha is so popular.

* I have no idea how scores are posted. I'll figure it out next time!

* Half the time I couldn't even make out the names of the skaters because their moms and sisters started screaming as soon as they came out, and the program of course didn't list the finalists.

* There were very few onlookers. Too bad - I loved watching and it cost a whopping $5. I hated to leave just as the senior ladies were arriving but unfortunately I had to. I'll definitely go to more club events. Thanks to all the hard-working and talented young skaters! :clap:
 

lulu

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Did Kristine Musademba win the Intermediate ladies championship a year ago or approx. two years ago?

I vaguely remember seeing her on the Comcast junior championships televised event.
If I remember correctly, she has a powerful style with great jumps.

I've also heard a lot of great things about Ksenia Makarova as well.

Thanks for you notes, it sounds as if you had a great time.
 
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