Worlds 2007 Free Dance

It has happened at least one other time this season: at Skate Canada, to Stephane Lambiel. He was so certain that he wasn’t going to make the podium that he changed out of his costume, but made an amazing comeback (over 14 points after the short program) to win the gold at that event. A similar thing happened to Belbin and Agosto at Worlds.

(YouTube video chronicling Lambiel's rise at Skate Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja2sd5iecgI)

The U.S. ice dancing champs were so certain that their free dance wasn’t good enough to win a medal, they also changed their clothes and were ready to leave the building when they were called back for the awards ceremony. “I learned a lesson,” Tanith Belbin said. “Don't take anything for granted.”

“I guess we dodged a bullet on that one,” Ben Agosto said. “We’ve been working really hard on the program. We didn’t skate our best, but I guess we did it good enough.”

Belbin and Agosto had only been skating their free dance program, done to the soundtrack to the French film “Amelie,” for a little over two months, having introduced it for the first time at the U.S. championships in January. As a result, it still had some rough spots at Worlds. Belbin bobbled a twizzle and nearly bumped into Agosto. They also lost a point on a lift held longer than the rules stipulate.

"I can’t believe I missed my twizzle. I never do that,” Belbin said.

The judges must have thought Belbin and Agosto’s errors were minor, for they made up what they lost in their other elements: excellent choreography and high marks for their lifts and step sequences. It was close, however; they were a mere 0.25 points over the fourth-place finishers, French champs Isabelle Delobel and Oliver Schenfelder.

“We're happy with how we skated,” said Delobel. “We were beaten by the Americans. Oh well.”

By the competition’s end, it was an exact duplication of the podium at the Worlds championships last year in Calgary: the gold going to Denkova and Staviski of Bulgaria, the silver to Dubreuil and Lauzon of Canada, and the bronze of course to Belbin and Agosto.

2006 Worlds podium

2007

The Bulgarians were very proud of their performance, which was probably their last in competitive figure skating. “It is wonderful for us to be here and to have won the second gold medal," Denkova stated. "I never thought this is possible. We’ve fought for it since the beginning of the season, we fought every moment.”

Denkova also admitted that she didn’t understand why she and her partner won the gold medal last year, but felt more secure with their performance this year. “I feel happier than last year,” she added.

Albena and Maxim had previously stated their intentions to retire from competition, but resisted formally announcing it. “I want to have a rest. But she’s the president. I’m just a skater,” Staviski grinned, referring to the fact that his partner and wife was elected president of the Bulgarian Skating Federation last fall.

Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon exhibited the romance in their relationship with their long program, set to “At Last” by Etta James, took the silver again this year.

"Last year the worlds were in Canada,” Dubreuil said. “It added to the pressure. After the accident in Torino my body was not 100%, and to get back on that ice after Torino, it was overwhelming and was very hard to skate. We skated this competition very well with no pain and much less stress.”

The married couple were, disappointed that they lost the gold by such a close margin (barely one point). It didn’t mar their happiness at winning the silver, though. “We skated with a lot of love and joy,” said Dubreuil. “We just felt really free out there, which felt great.”

Sources:
Associated Press. Figure skating: Bulgarians’ intricate swirls win ice dance title.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/23/sports/skate.php

Free Press News Services. Belbin, Agosto capture bronze.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070324/SPORTS18/703240377/1048/SPORTS

ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 Tokyo (JPN) Day 4.
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268075-news-item,00.html

Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships: Free Dance Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032407_fd.shtml

Worlds 2007 Original Dance

There was at least one sports blogger who, in his “preview” of the Worlds Figure Skating Championships, held in Tokyo last month, who refused to write about ice dancing, saying, “Ice Dancing doesn’t get a preview because Ice Dancing is s***.”

In a previous post, he attempts to support the above assertion this way: “When I say ‘Figure Skating’ I don’t mean any of that wussy crap that comes under the category of ‘Ice Dancing.’ ‘Ice Dancing’ is not a sport, it’s what skaters do when they can’t make it as figure skaters. ‘Ice Dancing’ is the Rugby League of the Ice World.”

This fellow doesn’t know what he’s talking about, of course. He obviously hasn’t watched ice dancing in the last few years, and he certainly didn’t watch ice dancing at Worlds. The original dance portion of the competition was full of all kinds of excitement. Of course, Worlds ice dancing could be called“the D&S competition,” since three out of the top five competitors’ initials were D and S.

By the end of the original dance, the race was tight, the top three couples separated by only half a point. Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria edged out Canada’s Marie-France Dubrueil and Patrice Lauzon to take the lead. Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto moved up from fifth to third place.

Much of the reason for the excitement with the ice dancers at Worlds happened before the competition began. Canada’s Dubrueil and Lauzon, who in recent years have garnered a great deal of attention, came to Tokyo the favorites by plagued by recent injuries.

As Sportsnet, a Canadian sports webpage, reported, “It’s been one thing after another for Dubreuil.” They continue:

“A terrible fall in the original dance at the Turin Olympics last year left her with an injured right hip and lower back, forcing their withdrawal. They recovered to win silver at the world championships in Calgary last March, but misfortune again befell the Montrealers when Dubreuil hurt her right knee and ankle just before the Canadian championships in January.

They again pulled themselves together just in time to win another national title, and they went on to win Four Continents gold while Dubreuil continued to undergo physiotherapy on her right thigh. If anybody needed a break before the world championships, it was Dubreuil and Lauzon.“It feels so great just to concentrate on training and still have fun with it,” a healthy Dubreuil said from Leon, France, where the couple trains. “Last year I was in so much pain it was hard to focus on anything else other than the problem.”

Dubreuil and Lauzon’s original dance ranked third place, and they were in second place going into the free dance. All their elements were awarded a level four. “It was pretty good,” said Dubreuil. “Probably the best of the season. We love the tango. We even look Spanish so it’s easy to put the feeling and expression into the moves.”

Another thing that garnered a great deal of attention had very little to do with ice dancing, at least not technically, and that was American Tanith Belbin’s hair color change. The native Canadian, who was granted U.S. citizenship before the Olympics, pulled a Jennifer Aniston on Tokyo, which was all a-buzz about her change to darker locks. She and her partner Ben Agosto came in second after the original dance, a mere 0.2 points behind first place.

This in spite of a near-miss of the boards by Belbin. She assured at least one reporter that it wasn’t a new part of their choreography. They were able to go on like nothing happened, though, but it did slightly affect their performance.

“We didn't actually have (an original dance) practice in this arena before, and it doesn’t have hockey lines like the other arena,” Belbin said. “I think we just started our beginning too close to the boards. I’m staring at Ben the entire opening, and I don’t look away from him. So by the time I stepped forward to see where I was, it was too late. But I recovered all right. The rest of the program could have gone better had I not been disappointed and distracted by that little bobble.”

“She recovered really quickly,” said Agosto of his partner touching the boards. “I’m always impressed how she recovers when she has to, and I felt like the rest of the program was strong. We’ve been trying to work on connecting with each other and looking at each other a bit more and expressing that passion between two people in the tango. I think we did a pretty good job at that today.”

So ice dancing delivered in the area of excitement, musicality, and athleticism. By the end of the original dance, the score between the competitors was as close as it gets. There was plenty of drama as well, and that continued later in the week going into the free dance.

References:
Dubreuil and Lauzon carry Canadian hopes.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/article.jsp?content=20070317_143125_4580

ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 Tokyo (JPN) Day 3.
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268038-news-item,00.html

Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships, Original Dance Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032307_od.shtml

Preview: World Figure Skating Championships 2007. http://shottonothing.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/preview-world-figure-skating-championships-2007/

Why am I so Damned Obsessed with Figure Skating? http://shottonothing.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/why-am-i-so-damned-obsessed-with-figure-skating/

Day Six

Man, there was some good figure skating today! When I have more time, I intend to verify it (yet another item on my expanding to-research list), but I suspect that most skaters this week have made their personal bests. Like I said yesterday, there must be something in the water here in Spokane. It’s like this little town has spurred the skaters onto excellence. I know this sounds hokey, but I’m honored to have helped out in just a little way.

10am: Arrived at the Arena for the junior men’s free skate. To be honest, I wasn’t as impressed with these guys. Perhaps my expectation of the skating is higher now than it was earlier in the week. I’ll look up their scores later, probably after I get home.

12:50pm: Things were pushed together this week, and the arena is starting to get really crowded. I was barely even able to grab lunch! The pairs free skate was worth the price of admission for the entire week. I’m still amazed at the outcome—these skaters from Michigan that no one has heard of, Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski, actually won the whole thing, by the slimmest of margins (.25 of a point). They competed in sectionals this season, and didn’t even win them. And they came in eighth at last year’s Nationals. Absolutely amazing.

I feel bad for Inoue and Baldwin. They fell twice; I thought that one of the falls was during one of their attempted throw quads (which they missed in their short program), but the newspaper stories (“The Spokesman Review”) I read this morning didn’t report that. They did report on something I missed, though, because we hadn’t gotten back in time for it. Vise and Trent, during their warm-up earlier in the evening, successfully accomplished a quad throw Salchow, something that’s never been done before in competition. They attempted it during their long program, but unfortunately wasn’t able to do it. Something in the water!

In between groups, we were treated to the induction of Charles Schultz to the Figure Skating Hall of Fame. (He was a huge supporter of the sport.) Scott Hamilton gave the award to Schultz’s widow. The audience gave him a standing ovation. Man, I love that guy. He’s so brave, and talented, and still cute as heck.

5:30pm: Dinner at the Sawtooth Grille in the mall in downtown Spokane. Adequate food; their calamari was a little rubbery. The fun part about out break was the shuttle trip to and from. We were lucky enough to sit next to a novice pair skater, Casey Sullivan, from Oregon. I think I’ll write it up as an interview at a later time. It was like sitting through a mini-lecture on what it’s like to be a young skater, given by a very articulate young man. On the shuttle trip back, we were entertained by the bus driver. Here’s the joke she told over the intercom:

“If ya get thirsty over there at the Arena, you should be fine; I hear there’s lots of ice.” The entire shuttle groaned, and then, in the spirit of Johnny Carson, she made us laugh, anyway.

7:50pm: Well, that’s not entirely true. For some reason, they started late. But it was worth the wait, and we have some really fun seatmates.

Ice dancing! Great, great skating. Of course, there was no question who’d end up winning. Belbin and Agosto changed their long program! I’m glad, because the long program they’ve been performing all season just wasn’t doing it for them. They got it together in mere weeks, and it was great. I laughed as the scores were read, they were so high. At any rate, I think this program will suit them well as they go into World’s.

As I end, I have a request to ask my readers, if there are any out there. The phrase I heard for the first time on Thursday was used again yesterday. Is it “Dang, you’re hot!” or “Damn, you’re hot!” or “Yeah, you’re hot!” I must know!

I can’t believe that today’s the last two competitions, men and women’s long programs. Man, it should be good!

Day Three

Still having frustrations with our hotel—still no wireless in any rooms. Plus, we got back late last night (due to transportation frustrations), so I decided to blog this morning and went right to bed. The skating’s been great, though!

We decided to start things a bit later, since things didn’t really get started until 10am, so we slept in and hung out in the hotel most of the morning. Yesterday was all about ice dancing.

10am: Watched the junior original dance at the Convention Center. We weren’t sitting in a place where I could see the scores well, so I wasn’t able to look into my theory about the judges cracking down on point deductions. It didn’t seem to be the case, but I’ll research it when I have more time and internet. (There wasn’t the kind of deductions we saw with the novices with the seniors, however.)

12:30pm: Ditched out on the junior men’s pairs short program to go have lunch. Also, we figured that if we wanted to eat lunch and go see the senior compulsory dance at 3pm, we’d miss some of the men, anyway. Ate at Chili’s, a sentimental favorite of mine because I used to eat there with my buddies in college. We got to the Spokane Arena way early and hung out, watching the junior girls’ warm-up.

3pm: Seniors compulsory dance. My favorite ice dancers, Belbin and Agosto, kicked butt! My mother-in-law, who isn’t as familiar with Ben and Tanith as I am, but who has watched figure skating for forty years, could tell they were far and above much better than anyone else. I can’t really say much more than that, since I haven’t had much experience watching the compulsories. They’re fun to watch, though—so pretty and elegant. I wish that I had more opportunities to watch them.

4:30pm: Early dinner at the Ticket.

5:40pm: Got back to watch the junior women’s long program. One of the things about this competition is my assumption that the lower level skaters perform at, well, a lower level. That’s only somewhat true—these girls do triples and the intricate spins and footwork as the seniors, but much better than I assumed coming here. And the drama’s just as exciting. It’s my intention to write a more extensive article about the juniors at a later time.

8:30pm: Senior original dance. Again, we were treated to excellent skating. Ben and Tanith blew everyone else out of the water. They’re almost a full ten points ahead of the next-best couple, Gregory and Petukhov (who did a great skate anyway). I want to compare these scores with previous ones; I believe that Ben and Tanith might have made their personal best; if not, pretty close.

At the end of Ben and Tanith’s program, Ben did this uncharacteristic little slip. While they were sitting at the kiss and cry, Tanith was gesturing—probably explaining to someone what had happened. It was very cute. Man, I love those guys.

I don’t want to describe the struggle we had getting back to the hotel last night. We’re driving in and paying for parking this morning.