World Sweepers. Just curious...

[CoyoteChris]

So there I am sitting at the worlds by where the sweepers came out, noting that they are young ladies instead of the usual young girls, and I am having Deja Vu all over again. I am sure I saw a few of them competing at the Pacific coast sectionals. So I got out my program from Scottsdale and looked at the faces and I think the sweepers are from either All Year FSC or Los Angeles FSC or both. Anyone know where they came from and how they are picked? It would be quite an honor to be picked....

 

[Sylvia]

Relevant excerpt from Icenetwork's "The Inside Edge with Sarah & Drew" Worlds blog:

Stellar sweepers

You'll be seeing some familiar faces as the sweepers take the ice in L.A. The organizing committee, in Hollywood style, has ditched cute for talent, and decided to add a little star quality to their sweeping force. Up-and-coming stars and higher-level skaters will be used to pick up the stuffies this time, including Ellie Kawamura (U.S. junior silver medalist), Carolyn-Ann Alba (eighth in junior ladies) and Kloe Bautista (ninth in junior pairs).

"We thought it would be a great experience," said Ellie. "I'm also going to perform in the opening ceremony on Tuesday! I'm doing two group programs."

"I was chosen by my club [All Year FSC] to represent them as a sweeper for worlds," added Kloe. "My coach and I thought it was quite an honor to be asked, and I decided to follow through with it."

Speaking of the opening ceremony, it was fun to see Kloe and her partner, Galvani Hopson, skating pairs on the crowded ice and show lights, along with Ellie, Lindsay Davis and Alex Merritt (12th in senior pairs), Amanda Dobbs (seventh in junior ladies), and Richard Dornbush (third at the Junior Grand Prix Final). We've never seen quite that many fireworks on the ice in an opening ceremony!

Katlynn McNab was another Worlds sweeper who competed at 2009 Nationals (novice ladies), while both Victoria Hecht (junior) and Kelsey Chan (novice) competed at 2009 Pacific Coast Sectionals last November. Another sweeper was Victoria Rackohn, a past Nationals competitor (junior & novice).

 

[CoyoteChris]

Sylvia, thank you so much! .... now I can put faces to names....AND it appears I am not quite as crazy as I thought...I think what the organizing committee did was a great idea.....good luck to all of them in the future.

 

[lcd]

And the use of former champions to hold medals, flowers etc during award ceremonies was a really nice touch too I thought

 

[Medusa]

The best thing were the flowers! I loved how fresh and natural the flowers looked, not overdone, no big paper or plastic around - just fresh flowers in beautiful colours.

 

[Tinymavy15]

The best thing were the flowers! I loved how fresh and natural the flowers looked, not overdone, no big paper or plastic around - just fresh flowers in beautiful colours.

I agree. I loved the flowers and the flags and the whole ceremony.
I agree that it will strange having such old ice sweepers...and there was hardly anything to sweep. No raining flowers of toys even for Yu-na. The poor girls looked so cold in those sleeveless dresses.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Now that you mention it, there really werent that many toys thrown in the whole competition...I wonder if that is true of other worlds?

Chris who would throw a toy if Michelle even just WALKED on the ice!

 

[Tonichelle]

it's definitely not true of other worlds... the one in 2001 had stuff reigning down on everyone's head (the infamous flying pig that Jamie Sale threw was a toy thrown to the ice... and IIRC that's when Plushenko had to duck and cover because the flowers kept landing on his head in the K&C)...

from early reports it seems the rink was pretty anti the goodies.

 

[CoyoteChris]

I have it! Because of the lack of food, people were too busy smuggling in goodies to bring in toys! Or maybe they were too busy trying to get to the long food lines before they starved to death....

 

[Kimmie Fan]

Now that you mention it, there really werent that many toys thrown in the whole competition...I wonder if that is true of other worlds?

Chris who would throw a toy if Michelle even just WALKED on the ice!

Its because Staples had no toys or stuffed animals for sale!
What a missed opportunity.
Its so obvious that Staples people had no idea how figure skating works.
Don't ask me about all the banners they hung on the roof....so far away that you needed telescope to read the signs. Boo!

 

[Particle Man]

Hey, at least people at Worlds didn't have to worry about heavy rubber strawberries flying down from the nosebleed seats! I really bet people got in trouble after Nationals, what a terrible idea for a thing to throw!

But yeah, seeing essentially no stuffed animals on the ice for B&A's long program, in the united states no less, that was pretty shocking. Personally I smuggled 8 stuffed animals into Nationals and not even very well, and no one cared...

 

[dorispulaski]

Hey, at least people at Worlds didn't have to worry about heavy rubber strawberries flying down from the nosebleed seats! I really bet people got in trouble after Nationals, what a terrible idea for a thing to throw!

But yeah, seeing essentially no stuffed animals on the ice for B&A's long program, in the united states no less, that was pretty shocking. Personally I smuggled 8 stuffed animals into Nationals and not even very well, and no one cared...

Who did you throw them to at Nationals?

 

[Eevun]

The best thing were the flowers! I loved how fresh and natural the flowers looked, not overdone, no big paper or plastic around - just fresh flowers in beautiful colours.

Which made me think of those horrible creations from last Worlds. Easter feathers in awful colours. I was so ashamed...

 

[Tonichelle]

*has thrown a big set of lips pillow that made a kissing noise for Johnny Weir - 2008 National Championships*

in my defense, I threw it for a friend....

 

[Raatkirani]

Its because Staples had no toys or stuffed animals for sale!
What a missed opportunity.
Its so obvious that Staples people had no idea how figure skating works.
Don't ask me about all the banners they hung on the roof....so far away that you needed telescope to read the signs. Boo!

The funny thing is that one the official website, it was mentioned that toys and wrapped flowers would be on sale at Staples. You couldn't bring outside ones for safety reasons, but that they would be available. They weren't, which explains the miserable lack of items thrown on the ice. Another annoying thing was that the team store there didn't have any disposable cameras for sale.