International Figure Skating November - December 2016

Idon’t know about you, but the off-season this year seemed to me to be a long one. By the time the Junior Grand Prix Series rolled around, I was more than ready for some serious skating. I know that some of you do not follow this Series, but it has become one of my favorites. This year, the juniors stepped it up a notch landing quads and triple Axels, and executing programs that would rival some seniors. Japan’s Rika Kihira set the skating world on fire when she landed a clean triple Axel in her second event. The biggest surprise of the Series was the upset caused by the young Australian pairs team in Estonia who defeated two experienced Russian duos to claim top spot. The Challenger Series is at…

After being sidelined with a back injury for most of the 2015-2016 season, Jason Brown is finally fighting fit and raring to go for the season that lies ahead. The injury forced Brown to withdraw from NHK Trophy last November. The Colorado-based skater was back on the ice two weeks later, but the ailment resurfaced and he was out of action indefinitely. “It was definitely tough. You so badly want to be out there, but at the same time I was in a lot of pain,” Brown said of his lengthy recuperation. He withdrew from nationals and Four Continents and was not selected for the 2016 World team, which Brown said was really difficult. “It made me realize how much I wanted to be there and how much I wanted…

CIoming back from a serious injury is never easy and Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond found out last season just how tough that return journey can be. Osmond broke her leg during a choreography session in late 2014 and was out of action for 16 months. During the early days of her recovery, tired of sustaining injuries, she had no desire to return to the competitive battlefield. The Edmonton-based skater credits her coach, Ravi Walia, for his gentle persistence in encouraging her to return to skating. “He convinced me to get back on the ice so I would not be scared of it and just to know that I could stand on my own two feet again,” Osmond recalled. She described her first day back at the rink as terrifying; refusing to…

Jun-hwan Cha is the latest skating sensation to come out of the Republic of Korea. At his Junior Grand Prix debut in Yokohama, Japan, in early September, the 14-year-old claimed the top step of the podium in a runaway victory. Cha not only waltzed off with the gold medal, he also claimed a small piece of history by earning the highest combined score ever awarded at a junior Grand Prix event. Cha is the youngest man to have claimed this record under the current judging system. Sitting in second after the short and a little more than a point behind Vincent Zhou of the United States, Cha was the last skater to take to the ice for the free program. His performance, which included a quad Salchow and seven clean…

It is a story that could take its lead from the first line of the Charles Dickens classic “A Tale of Two Cities.” For Nathan Chen, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In his first year as a senior, Chen capped off a successful week at the 2016 U.S. Championships with a bronze medal, and a trip to the World Championships. But in a cruel twist of fate, his dream was dashed just hours later when he suffered a season-ending injury while performing in the gala. “A few months before nationals, I had a growth injury in my hip that was bothering me in my training leading up to that competition,” Chen explained. “It was bearable, but after the short program it started aggravating…

MEDAL COUNT The Junior Grand Prix Series got off to a rocky start in St. Gervais, France. Shortly before 2 p.m. on Aug. 25 a shuttle bus transporting two skaters and their coaches to the skating venue crashed into a hydro pole. Russia’s Anna Tarusina and Latvia's Anzelika Klujeva, both 14, were onboard. All five people in the van suffered minor to severe head and/or leg injuries and were transported to hospital. The following day Tarusina, who suffered the worst injuries, was transferred to Grenoble Hospital where she underwent knee surgery. She was discharged from the hospital on Sept. 3 and returned to Russia. Her coach, Sergei Davydov, suffered a head trauma in the accident. He is reportedly on the mend. The seven-event Series played out at four stops in…