Michelle skating in the ABC Winter Challenge?

Hmmmm...to be beaned by a roll of toilet paper...

Mathman - I thought last year it was Crest Whitestrips that sponsored it -- or was there more than one sponsor? I do remember the skaters throwing something, but I don't remember what it was. We were too far away from the ice to get anything.

Oh, yes, I think you're right. Did they throw out toothpaste?

Chevrolet was one of the secondary sponsors, though, and they gave out 6.0 paddles to wave with the Chevie chevron on the back.

MM

Yep - I remember those paddles. I thought "what if I don't think it's a 6.0?"

I felt so bad for the ladies for having to skate with that cone at the end of the rink where the Zam took out that chunk of ice. It seemed to be exactly where many of their jumps were planned. It also clearly rattled several of them (which as a skater myself, I can fully understand). I hope the Palace learned a lesson on ice thickness and maintenance from that incident.

Do you remember the look on Alexi Yagudin's face to skate out at the end of the group in the "finale" instead of the lead? I felt so bad for him - IMO he was clearly the best skater out there in terms of presentation, but with his injury he just couldn't keep up with the others with their technical ability.

Yes, about Yagudin. I wonder if he will be able to skate at all this year.

About the hole in the ice, I thought Ann Partrice was affected the most. It seemed like that hole was just exactly where she wanted to jump, at least twice, and she had to swerve around it very awkwardly.

Mathman

Going off memory here, but I think Irina had 'issues' with the cone as well. I think she doubled her opening 3Lutz, and in the slo-mo playback after the program, you can see her give the cone the look of Death.