2004 Marshall’s World Figure Skating Challenge: Highlights

The 2004 Marshall’s World Figure Skating Challenge was held Apr 6 at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The event, sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), was the final Olympic-eligible competition for the 2003-04 season and featured some of the top figure skaters in the world.

The 13 competitors (7 ladies and 6 men) skated their long program in front of a panel of 5 judges: Francois…

2004 World Figure Skating Championships: Ladies Highlights

Shizuka Arakawa of Japan was the surprise winner in the ladies event, winning her first world title, while USA’s Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan won silver and bronze respectively.

The ladies event begin with the Qualifying Rounds which account for 20 percent of the final score. The short program is worth 30 percent while the long is worth 50 percent. The top 15 skaters from each qualifying group advanced to…

No Holding Back For Cohen

“My plan is to attack and skate full out,” Cohen said at today’s press conference, on her approach for the upcoming World Championships. “No holding back.”

The three-time and current US National silver medalist has been working for nearly three…

Cohen Has Breakout Season

This may be a breakout year for Alexandra Pauline (Sasha) Cohen, the diminutive ballerina on ice who has captivated the public’s eye in the last year. Cohen, who had her 19th birthday party at this year’s Skate America, won her first major international competition last season when she took the ISU Grand Prix Final title in St. Petersburg, Russia. She won her first Grand Prix medal the same season…

2003 Trophee Lalique Highlights

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series continued with Trophée Lalique November 13- 15, 2003. The fourth of six qualifying events took place at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy in Paris, France.

Sasha Cohen, the current US National bronze medalist, entered her third Grand Prix event in Paris, and won the gold with a total score of 197.19 points. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan won the silver medal (172.12 points) while…

2003 Skate Canada: Highlights

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series continued with Mastercard Skate Canada International, the second of six qualifying events. The event was held from October 30 to November 2 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Current World Champions and World medalists headlined the event.

The reigning European and World champion, Evgeni Plushenko, headlined and won the men’s event. To the delight of the home crowd, Canada’s Jeffrey Buttle,…

2003 Skate America: Highlights

Skate America, the premier international event conducted by the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA), began a new era of figure skating with the incorporation of the new cumulative points judging system – known as the Code of Points (CoP). The first event of six of the Grand Prix series was held at the Sovereign Center Arena, October 23-26, in Reading, PA.

US National champion, Michael Weiss, won his first…

2003 Campbell’s International Figure Skating Classic: Highlights

The televised portion of the 2003-2004 figure skating season got underway on October 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York City with the second Campbell’s International Figure Skating Classic. The event will be televised on ABC on October 19, the week before the Grand Prix season begins with Skate America in Reading, PA.

The ISU-sanctioned competition brought together all of the medalists from the 2003 World Figure Skating Championships…

2002-03 Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating: Highlights

Reigning World Champions Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh confirmed their roles as leaders in the sport by dancing to the Gold relatively easily. However, their main rivals for the gold in Washington, Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, were not present. Lobacheva and Averbukh’s Original Dance (OD) looked even more polished than at Europeans, and the overall impression was strong. They skated last year’s “Time for Peace” in the…

2002 Trophee Lalique: Highlights

American Sasha Cohen made it two for two by winning Trophee Lalique, her second consecutive Grand Prix event, and earning herself a trip to the Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg next March. The eighteen-year-old American won Skate Canada, her first major senior international victory, two weeks ago in Quebec City.

Cohen’s victory did not come without hiccups, though. In the short program, she fell on her double Axel -…

2002 Skate Canada: Highlights

Skate Canada, the second in a series of six Grand Prix events, was held in Quebec City from October 31 to November 3. Many of the original headliners – such as Olympic champions Alexei Yagudin, Sarah Hughes, and Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze – pulled out with injury, but the competition featured strong a level of skating across the four disciplines.

In the absence of Yagudin, the men’s event boiled down to…