Nathan Chen crushed them. Just crushed them. If ever there was a wobble in your thinking about Chen’s prowess on the men’s figure skating scene after Skate America, then straighten yourself in your seat, find a crutch, get a new pair of Birkenstocks, anything, and get ready to marvel again. After he finished third at […]
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The Long and Winding Road
The long and winding road isn’t quite finished yet for world bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. But this year they are celebrating it. And skating to it. Using the Beatles music to it, they won a gold medal at Skate Canada on Saturday. It’s an important gold medal: it’s their first Grand Prix […]
The Newest Face of Russian Women
Before any talk of triple Axels or quads or such, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva stepped out onto the ice at the start of her short program at Skate Canada and did something seemingly quite simple. But astonishing nonetheless. Dressed in rose froth, the 15-year-old Russian stretched out a leg far, far up and behind her, up […]
Canadian Pair Rivalry
Okay. It’s the elephant in the room. The comeback of Olympic bronze medalist and world pair champion Eric Radford could sit heavily on two-time Canadian pair champions Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. And yes it has. They would like to go into the Beijing Olympics in February as the national champions, but now there is […]
Gilles and Poirier: Another Breakthrough
What do you do for an encore, after you’ve won a bronze medal at the world figure skating championships after years of toiling in the shadows? When you’re Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, you go out and nail the highest score of the season for the rhythm dance at Skate Canada in Vancouver, in front […]
Nathan Chen Finds Redemption
So Nathan Chen had a couple of bad days at Skate America last week. He wasn’t about to hit the panic button, he said. His long winning streak, back to the 2018 Olympics, was bound to end sometime, he said. However, the three-time world champion got back into the saddle at Skate Canada on Friday, […]
Vanessa James and Eric Radford: First Steps
The best thing about Autumn Classic International in September is that it leads to the next episode of skating – especially in an Olympic season. Eric Radford is already looking forward to his next event with new partner Vanessa James: Finlandia Trophy on Oct. 8 to 11 in Espoo, Finland. It’s the fifth of […]
The Muddy Waters of a Comeback
Eric Radford thought he needed a Plan B. So did Vanessa James. So they hitched their plans together, rather organically. It just sort of happened. But they didn’t expect that the announcement of their new pair partnership with 10 months to go before the Beijing Olympics would be met with such snarling reaction. Hurt feelings […]
Gilles and Poirier: At Last
Sweet dreams are made of these. In ice dancing on Saturday, it was everything that led up to the bronze medal – only .36 points away from a silver – won by Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier at the world figure skating championships. Although they won the bronze medal, they finished second in the free […]
Nathan Chen’s Epic Adventure
Nathan Chen is ever thus: calmer than a pool. And focused like a laser beam, although he doesn’t look it. He won his third consecutive world title with explosive point totals on Saturday. He had come to Stockholm, grateful to be there. He had shaken off his woolly lockdown curls, shrugged off a hiccup in […]