2018 Champs Camp

[Bluediamonds09]

The public is not going to get much insider footage of the test skates etc.

I can understand that. But the interviews could at least be more interesting and creative and informative. More exclusive! And we could get inside information without compromising anything important, I’m sure.

 

[princessalica]

Just saw a tweet from Lynn Rutherford. She’s talked to Gracie who says she lives training in aston where there is so much ice and working towards rostelecom.

 

[mrrice]

Mervin Tran has teased us several times with photos and video clips of himself skating with Olivia Serafini. They look great together from what I can see.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl8s35KF8lM/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=ss9judrlj636

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiTD3k4jaIl/?taken-by=skate_moivo

NICE!!!!!! Thank you for sharing that!!!


BTW...….I'm dying to hear how Gracie is looking. I don't care about jumps or spins, I care about how she's doing emotionally. As I said before, if she's happy, I'm happy!

 

[Tavi...]

Guys cooking class:

https://twitter.com/jasonbskates/status/1031755478299238400?s=21

https://instagram.com/p/BmuhJVpFMR1/

 

[Tavi...]

First article to emerge from Champs Camp, by LynnR about Denney/Frazier - hope we will see more from her on other skaters:

http://www.usfigureskatingfanzone.c...amp-2018-denney-frazier-hit-the-reset-button/

 

[alexaa]

13 minutes video from USFS facebook: fun time with foster puppies

https://www.facebook.com/usfigureskating/videos/1904849986237558/

from twitter

https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/1032067352358215687

Missing from the video but not the fun, Karen and Jason

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmxFigkBkx9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

USFS IG

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmxHu9uAy_D/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

more team building activities in IG stories of Bradie, Kaitlin, Zach, Christina Carreira

ETA: group picture from USFS IG, “Nothing like a little competition for some team building.
sergeonik’s team won the #ChampsCamp18 dance off last night!”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmyGIwggZDe/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=i1s5bg79ea8c

From Serge Onik IG story

https://www.instagram.com/sergeonik

Glimpse of practicing group number could be found in Christina’s IG story

https://www.instagram.com/christinacarreira

ETA2: same FB video is available on USFS IGTV

https://www.instagram.com/usfigureskating/

 

[ice coverage]

13 minutes video from USFS facebook: fun time with foster puppies

https://www.facebook.com/usfigureska...4849986237558/ …

Loved the video. :luv17:

This link works: https://www.facebook.com/usfigureskating/videos/1904849986237558/

(Yours is missing the middle of the URL. Although mine looks the same because of auto-abbreviation, it is the full link, if you know what I mean.)

---

… ETA: group picture from USFS IG, “Nothing like a little competition for some team building.
sergeonik’s team won the #ChampsCamp18 dance off last night!”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmyGIwggZDe/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=i1s5bg79ea8c ...

For those who follow Brandon F on Instagram, his private account has the longest video clip of the winning team's dance that I have seen … including the big finish.

---

Mini-video featuring Deanna, Nate, Jessica Calalang, Bradie, and Courtney:

deannamsd622 . Podium smiles on 3!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmuLeYwBA6s/?taken-by=wheejifer (Aug 20)​

 

[andromache]

I don't think I've ever realized that Champs Camp is actually like summer camp with cute little activities. I always had assumed that it was much more serious and focused tbh.

 

[el henry]

I don't think I've ever realized that Champs Camp is actually like summer camp with cute little activities. I always had assumed that it was much more serious and focused tbh.

It’s both.

Waaaay serious and focused with skaters skating their programs for waaaaay serious evaluation and feedback. The part we don’t see.

And organized team building exercises, which by their nature are “fun”, like the cooking and the puppies, etc. which we do see.
And if we’re really lucky, epic fluff like the Jason & Grant interview of a few years ago.:agree:

 

[Impromptu]

Some photos from Alex Johnson's Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmzSLaNluTl/?taken-by=alexmartinj (including a nice one with his coaches Paige Lipe and Caryn Kadavy)

 

[mrrice]

I know it's been said but......I would really like more information on how the skaters are looking. Especially Gracie. Jason changing coaches, I wonder how he's skating? I wish they had an exhibition performance of what they learned as a climax to the event. I know we always had performances at the end of our dance camps. Even it was informal, I know I'd love to see even 2 minutes from each skater.

 

[katmari]

The latest Champs Camp report in the Fan Zone focuses on Mariah Bell and Courtney Hicks:

http://www.usfigureskatingfanzone.c...or-new-quad-courtney-hicks-leaps-to-altitude/

 

[Ice Dance]

I know it's been said but......I would really like more information on how the skaters are looking. Especially Gracie. Jason changing coaches, I wonder how he's skating? I wish they had an exhibition performance of what they learned as a climax to the event. I know we always had performances at the end of our dance camps. Even it was informal, I know I'd love to see even 2 minutes from each skater.

We haven't seen Jason skate since he was dealing with injury. Or Kayne & O'Shea or Kraznozhon or Karen or Chock & Bates. Or Gracie since she took a whole season off to heal in other regards. I think we should let the athletes debut when they are ready. Many fans can't look past mistakes and tend to start ripping apart material without seeing the potential behind it. Better to see the material when the athletes feel it's ready. We've been plenty spoiled to see as many U.S. programs as we have this summer, and all this weekend's international junior programs to keep us busy now. Lots of U.S. skaters booked for Challengers so we'll be seeing the programs soon.

 

[Tavi...]

We haven't seen Jason skate since he was dealing with injury. Or Kayne & O'Shea or Kraznozhon or Karen or Chock & Bates. Or Gracie since she took a whole season off to heal in other regards. I think we should let the athletes debut when they are ready. Many fans can't look past mistakes and tend to start ripping apart material without seeing the potential behind it. Better to see the material when the athletes feel it's ready. We've been plenty spoiled to see as many U.S. programs as we have this summer, and all this weekend's international junior programs to keep us busy now. Lots of U.S. skaters booked for Challengers so we'll be seeing the programs soon.

Actually, while Jason didn’t compete this summer, he did do a benefit at the end of July and there are fancams of both programs:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zfs_P9DeTjc
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLKCvVWjvo

Although he fell out of a spin (!) in one program and opened up early on his Lutz in the other, he looks like he’s not suffering any ill effects from the ankle sprain.

 

[ice coverage]

Posted yesterday on Fan Zone are some Champs Camps photos from Madi Hubbell:

https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...bell-shares-photos-from-2018-champs-camp.aspx (posted Sep 20)​

Including dance class and cooking class with the likes of Madi herself + Christina Carriere; Bradie and Starr; Quinn, Joe Johnson, Angela Wang; Hawayek.
(And others not in the foreground of these shots.)

Zach is with Madi H in a couple of shots from their subsequent trip to NYC to represent sponsor Voss Water at Taste of Tennis before the U.S. Open.

---

Happy to say that as of a couple of weeks ago, Lynn Rutherford was planning to attend Champs Camp to conduct interviews for USFS Fan Zone -- and I assume that the plan remains in effect.

That said, IIRC, she generally did not write articles for IN that were based solely on Champs Camp? Instead she would weave her reporting from Champs Camp organically into various early-season articles for IN.
Do not know whether the same will be true in her work for Fan Zone.

In any case, I think that it is worth staying tuned (as always ) to Lynn's Twitter and Instagram posts.

Quoting myself to follow up and make note that Lynn's Champs Camp reporting in some cases indeed is being integrated into articles being published as the season gradually unfolds. (Such as her Fan Zone and NBC articles pegged to Jason's season debut at Autumn Classic.)

The point -- worth remembering for future years :yes: -- is that just because Lynn's tweets during Champs Camp do not happen to mention Skater X, there should not be a rush to judgment/assumptions that she did not interview Skater X at Champs Camp, that she is not interested in X, or that she does not intend to write about X.

 

[ice coverage]

The October issue of Skating magazine has coverage of Champs Camp (and of the Emerging Athlete Program).

Such as the Letter from the Editor on p. 4 of the magazine:

http://content.digitalpub.blue-soho....SKATING/html/index.html?page=5&origin=reader​

Plus four pages of notes from Champs Camps -- mini-articles on some skater-specific topics (with quotes from Nathan about Yale; from Double G (Gracie ) about her new car as one of the new parts of her life; from Jason on his haircut; etc.) and on various aspects of CC. Starting on p. 10 of the magazine:

http://content.digitalpub.blue-soho...SKATING/html/index.html?page=11&origin=reader​

 

[ice coverage]

The keynote speaker was three-time Olympic bobsled medalist Elana Meyers Taylor. :luv17: :hap85: (Who also is President-elect of the Women's Sports Foundation.)

… Elana's 3 Keys To Success, per Ashley/Tim USFS Instagram takeover:

1. Embrace the entropy
2. Choose your team
3. Enjoy it!​

...

Within the Angela Wang interview posted today by John Wilson Blades is a nice footnote to the Champs Camp keynote address from Elana Meyers Taylor.
(The interview was recorded at Finlandia Trophy, and posted today.)

Angela was asked, "What drives your training?"

She answered (I'm paraphrasing) that whenever she is feeling overwhelmed, she thinks back to the advice from the keynote to "embrace the entropy."
Angela has it written down on a Post-It note that is stuck on her mirror -- so that every morning when Angela is getting ready, she has that reminder.

https://youtu.be/48RBoBEB1VE?t=163​