COI what happened?

[goodsoul81]

I've been following figure skating for years but I've paid little attention to the COI tour mainly because I haven't been terribly interested in watered down showy skating. At any rate Jeffrey Buttle at this years word's made a fan out of me and I checked the COI website to see if he was on the tour this year. I was shocked to see the cast make up! The last time I saw the tour was in 1996 when it was loaded with current and former world and olympic champions. The current big names in mens skating dont seem to be represented. For example noone that was on the podium at worlds in the mens event is on the tour... When did this start? Has it been a steady decline? And are there any other tours with a more international cast to reflect the current state of the sport?

 

[iluvtodd]

Jeff Buttle will be doing the Canadian Stars on Ice tour, starting in mid-April. I hope some day that he gets to tour with the USA SOI tour as well.

Evan Lysacek will be doing a few dates on the COI tour.

 

[Mathman]

I think invitations probably have to go out quite a ways in advance. How could Tom Collins have guessed that the men's podium would be Lambiel, Buttle and Lysacek?

Plushenko is usually part of the tour, but he is injured. Yagudin had an uneasy on-again, off-again relation with COI for a number of years before signing with SOI.

MM

PS. The reports from the first show were that Michelle skated the full six-triple version of Bolero.

 

[NJSk8Fan]

Some cities are getting Orscher/Lucash and Kimmie Meisner.
I see the show on Saturday, can't wait!

 

[hockeyfan228]

PS. The reports from the first show were that Michelle skated the full six-triple version of Bolero.

I think that's a good sign, and I hope she keeps it up. How else to do a full run-through of a competition-level program when travelling on a bus, with sporadic practice hours and conditions?