Practice reports | Golden Skate

Practice reports

sillylionlove

Medalist
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
I know that there are probably a million practice reports out there but there doesn't seem to be any on this site...so I will give an update on today's practices from my perspective.

First I will start with the men
Andrei Lutai was a no show. No one seems to know where he is or if he is even coming. Rumors are going around that the Russian Federation was not going to be sending him due to poor showing in previous competitions. He was announced to be at the practice session so I wonder if he is a withdrawn or just not showing up.
Most of the men looked strong. Jialian Wu of China is very tall. It could be that he was in the practice session with the shorter males of the group. Adrian Schultheiss is skating to some really funky music. Some how Cypress Hill, Prodigy and I think a little music from the Pac Man video game don't scream ice skating but the Swedish men tend to pick "out there" music. The fact that I knew the music scared me! The men all seemed to have relatively good practices. Evan's progam looks much better in person then on television or on the computer. I was actually very impressed. I have to say that I don't remember too much of the men so I wish I could write more. I will say that Nanri is no where near the league of Oda, Takahashi or even Kozuka.

Ladies
Emily looked great..at least to me. She was skating well and was doing her jumps. She had a number of falls, one where she fell withthe legs in a V shape and skidded on her butt across the ice and then started laughing. She seems really happy to be here and it was nice to see her. She looked like she was in great shape as well.
Elena Glebova had a horrible practice. I don't think that she landed a single jump. She was popping all over the place. In the last few minutes of the practice I think that she landed a one or two. I felt so bad and she left the ice pretty fast.
Yu Na was excellent as always. She did fall on one jump but other then that, the media was all over the place. Fumie had a relatively good practice and did Julia. Susanna Poykio was ok. I don't remember much about her practice. This was my first time seeing Alexe. She is tall for a female skater. She seemed to be skating slow and she did the Beilmann spin and my friend commented that no one should do that spin when they spin it that slow.

Pairs
Shen and Zhao....they are just amazing! Zhang and Zhang were having some trouble landing their side by side jumps. Yao Bin didn't say much to them at practice but at one point, after the male Zhang fell out of his pivot on the death spiral, he appeared to be yelling at them. I sure needed someone that spoke Chinese! Shen and Zhao were having such a great time out there. I never saw a pairs team laugh and smile to much out on the ice.
Keauna had a huge brace on her right leg, which is her landing leg. I asked her about it and she said it was nothing just something minor. I sure hope so.
Brooke And Ben had a relatively good practice. They were having some trouble on the throw jump. Brooke didn't really fall but she did fall out of it. Hopefully they will be able to get it together for the short because they looked really good.Stacy Kemp and David King had a relatively good practice. They were in the group with the Chinese and the Ukraine pair. According to David they had some travel troubles and it took them over 24 hours to get to Lake Placid. So with little sleep and they group that they were in they did relatively well.
Meagan and Craig were good. She took a hard fall on a throw and it took her about halfway around the rink to shake it off. I will say that I have no idea what Meagan does but while I was shoveling pretzels in my mouth I was amazed at her arm and back muscles. Amanda and Mark are just amazing. If they could just land the side by side jumps, they would be one of the top teams in the US. They have such great speed and power.
Tatiana and Stanislav were pretty good. I dont remember too much about them. Probably because I was too busy watching the Chinese.

Dance
Tanith and Ben...this program says Olympic Gold Medal all over it. They were really amazing. They skate about ten times faster then the other teams. It appeared to me that on a set of twizzles they were a little out of sync.But my eye is relatively untrained so I could be wrong.
Gorshkova and Butikov...the costumes are just horrible. The purple leg things are just terrible. They have pointy things coming out of the toes of their skates! Sersiously, they are just realy bad. And if you think they look horrible on television, they look worse in person. I wish I could say more about how they did but I was too fixated on their costumes.
Khokhlova and Novitski....Jana is so incredibly flexible. How is some one able to contort their body like that? They had a good practice. They did their long program today. I have to say that the music is very heavy and almost to the point of being too over dramatic.
Cappellini and Lanotte...First off I will start by saying that I was upset that there was no Massimo Scalli for me to stare at. That being said...they are a pretty good team. They did a costume change during their practice from the the costume for the compulsary dance to the original dance. I never saw that done before. I enjoyed them.
The chinese team of Yu and Wong had these bright orange costumes which I didn't get until they started skating and it was the music of Cats. The music was too cut up. The program was cute but I would not call it and Olympic Caliber program.
Caitlin Malloy and Kristian Rand had a relatively good practice. I have never seen them before. Caitlin is just a beautiful skater and very pretty as well. She could almost pass for a ballerina.
Chock and Zuerlein...they were relatively good.
Zaretski and Zaretski...they had a good practice. I have to say that Alexandra's hair is so extreme! And Galit is very pregnant!
Blanc and Bouquet...I really don't remember too much about their skating except for what they were weariing.
Kim and Brent...as always they picked a great song for thier free. If I remember correctly it's One by U2 and Mary J. Blige. I always enjoy their skating and at times I think that they are underated.

Tomorrow is a very long day...but I will try and log on tomorrow night and post some updates. Sorry if I didn't remember too much. I think I am in skating overload. And I am could tell one jump from another so I apologize for that.
 

Ms.Anthrope

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 24, 2007
^^
sillylionlove - Thank you for the report. Always fun to read. Shen looks absolutely amazing. Her arms are just WOW!!!
 

hauteor

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 3, 2009
I read on twitter that Lutai's skates and bags were lost in transit, so probably that's why he was a no-show in practice.

Shame about Elena :(
Hope she does her best (estonians stick together:) )
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Thanks so much for the detailed report! This is the first year I've been registered on GS and can thank an on-site reporter for sharing the experience with the rest of us.

I'm so happy to hear that Shen and Zhao look so good and so happy. I think in a way they have transcended regular competition. Not that I mean they're a shoe-in for Olympic gold (though I do hope they get it!), but they bring something to skating that few other skaters in any discipline can give: a combination of technique and smoothness that makes you feel you're watching an immortal performance. There's a "rightness" about their skating that I always hope to see in everyone, but it is as rare as a star sapphire. We're so lucky they came back to us!

And it's great to hear that Belbin/Agosto look so good.

Keep up the good work, SLL! And enjoy every minute of your "skating overload."
 
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snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Very good report from you sillylionlove :thumbsup: Thanks.

Now it starts.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Yes, great report, Silly Lion Love! We're late because my husband is under the weather but hopefully we'll be there with you tomorrow!
 

jaws12345

Match Penalty
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
What are their policies on bringing cameras and camcoders?

Does security go through your backpacks at the entrance and all?
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Update: my husband is still sick (a fluish cold) so no trip to Lake Placid for us. :cry:

But thank heavens for NBC Universal Sports and Justin TV! :bow:
 

SusieH

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Yuna's LP practice clip

[Ooops. I just realized the clip seems to come from Icenetwork. So I removed the link. Maybe later it will pop up at youtube.]

Anyway, in her LP run-through, she landed the 3F, but popped a 2A. See, she is human after all. :)

But it seems she still had a good practice session overall. Word from her fan forum is that she hit 22 jumps in a row in the recent practice.
 
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Ximena

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
It's not really a practice report but according to L. Rutherford's tweet, Verner's coach has said that Tomas is actually sick though Tomas hasn't said anything to the press.
 
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