Mathman: I saw the routine at Philly COI today, and it was lovely. More importantly, in the routine, Michelle did (I hope I'm not mixing up lutzes and flips, I was watching the whole routine, not just her feet): Two triple flips, triple lutz, triple toe and double axel, along with her signature spiral, spins, and elegant in-betweens. In the closing cowboy number, which was worth the cost of admissions just for the two, full skating lines of step dance footwork, Michelle's spotlight bit was FOUR double axels in a row, with minimal steps in between. I've never seen her jump this much in an exhibition. This does NOT sound like someone ready for retirement. It looks like a skater keeping her best jumps in shape to work on her harder elements for the Olympic year.
By the by, if you don't have tickets for this year's COI, GET THEM!!! We saw the best skating we've seen in YEARS today at this show. Honestly, only one fall,, Amber Corwin in the opening, and her program was lovely. The Ladies were absolutely on (MK, Amber, Irina, Surya, Sasha, Jenny and Kimmie) and the rest of the show was excellent, too. Just about every skater skated full out with huge smiles and great expressiveness. The show, unfortunately for COI, but fortunately for the audience in Philly, was lightly attended, but it gave it an intimate feel. Every performance, even those unrecognized by general public, received warm responses and loud applause. Frankly, it was the best COI I've been to in years, because the skaters and the audience were truly having a great time.
On upsetting thing: we didn't see Irina Gregorian ("hula hoop girl")--according to a post on FSU, she tripped chasing one of her hoops last night and appeared to injure her right foot seriously. Here's hoping she's OK.
