Baiul practice report

This news might be a little late, but I might as well reported since i am a little bored. Late August I was at a competition at Hackensack, New Jersey watching a group of novice ladies in a freestyle session before the competition began. Guess who I saw in that session, none other than Oksana. It took me a while to recognize her. I sat for the whole session to see what she would do. She landed about 5 clean double axels and about 30 failed triple toes. It was sad to see her miss such an easy jump. Some of the novice girls were hitting bigger jumps than her. On a good note, she looked very slim, has been living with her boyfriend in Fort Lee, New Jersey and is trying to get ready for Ice Wars which will be held in Albany, New York in October. Maybe she will be in better shape by then. I wish her well and hope she can put some Zest back in the Pro-Competitions.

Oksana has been missing most of her triples ever since she injured her knee a few months after the Olympics, had arthroscopic surgery on it, and went back on the ice before the doctors recommended. Oksana has said in print that she greatly regrets going back to training too soon and that her knee never healed properly probably because of it. Depending on the kind of injury, even the easiest triple can be virtually impossible to do. Not making excuses for her, just saying missing triples is nothing new for Oksana.

When it was announced that Oksana would be skating SOI and doing Ice Wars, I felt she was being hired more or less as a younger version of Katerina Witt, that is, for her charisma, her gracefulness, dramatic ability, and her name. If she couldn't jump much before, I didn't excpect to see her jumping well after these years of time off.

But from what Master F saw, it sounds as if she's in good shape physically. I'd rather see Oksana do a well-choreographed program, assuming she hasn't lost her dance abilities, althought I'm sure it will take her a while to get a lot of things back, with only one or two 2Axels than a lot of other skaters do 3/3s. Anyway, I'm willing to wait and see with Oksana. It would be nice to see her do well.
Rgirl

ITA R Girl.

Id also like to add that just because people have a "bad" day, doesnt mean that they are always like that. You should have seen me a few weeks ago. I could not do a 3 turn or anything. Now Im back to landing single flips like always.

I saw Oksana skate at an Ice Theater show here in August - she landed 3 gorgeous 2Axels (and one saved one), and a shaky, but landed, triple toe, over the course of 2 programs.

The show has a ton of problems with the installation of the ice floor. The skaters had almost no rehearsal time, they had to cancel 2 performances due to the ice not freezing, and it never really set properly. I was impressed that Oksana went ahead and gave the performances her all. I was impressed with her jumping, especially considering the conditions!

guinevere.

Guinevere-

Where did you see the Ice Theater in August? There was one about that time at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington, which I wanted to go to, but missed!