Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i International Figure Skating

Tnew year has brought with it many bright glimmers of hope that the world is getting back on track, with many sporting events taking place globally, including a number of figure skating competitions. It is undeniable that the Russian Figure Skating Federation has been a major force in keeping the sport in the forefront, live streaming all of its competitions to keep the world engaged. The innovative concept of a team event, which took place in early February, was one I thoroughly enjoyed. It also held a ladies versus men jump competition that was a lot of fun to watch, even though it was a given before it started which side would be victorious. The men were certainly no match for their female counterparts. While many other countries have held…

The city of Chelyabinsk played host to the 2021 Russian Championships in late December. New champions were crowned in ice dance and former champions in pairs and men reclaimed titles. Anna Shcherbakova was the only gold medalist from the 2020 campaign to defend a title Missing from the entry lists were Dmitri Aliev, the 2020 men’s champion, and ice dancers Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who all withdrew due to the coronavirus. As always, the ladies competition was the marquee event at these championships. Shcherbakova, the two-time and reigning national champion, was absent from the Grand Prix (Rostelecom Cup) in late November after contracting the virus and pneumonia, so how she would perform in Chelyabinsk was a question mark prior to the competition. However, that question became a moot point…

On January 15, U.S. Figure Skating announced the establishment of the Mabel Fairbanks Skatingly Yours Fund, which will support the training and development of promising figure skaters who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Starr Andrews, who placed sixth at the 2020 U.S. Championships, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Fund’s top award of $25,000. U.S. Figure Skating’s corporate partner Guaranteed Rate matched the award as part of its commitment to identify opportunities to enhance diversity within U.S. Figure Skating’s Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Two additional awards: $10,000 for an up-and-coming athlete and $5,000 for a developmental athlete will be announced at a later date. A generous donation from The Lisa McGraw Figure Skating Foundation kick-started the Fund, which aims to help BIPOC figure…

They have been in the top echelons of the U.S. pairs program for many years. Competing with different partners, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier had shared a long-time rivalry. All that changed a year ago when their respective partnerships came to an end. Scimeca, as she was known at the time, joined forces with Chris Knierim in 2012.Married in 2016, the couple claimed three national titles (2015, 2018 and 2020) and were part of the bronze-medal team at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea. Often struggling to find consistency, the duo finished 15th in the pairs event in PyeongChang and repeated the result a month later at the World Championships. In 2019, they finished seventh at the U.S. Championships before reclaiming their national title in 2020. Frazier and…

While its neighbour to the north cancelled all figure skating competitions scheduled for the 2020-2021 season, U.S. Figure Skating soldiered on. Following the success of Skate America in October, the organization opted to return to the “City of Lights” for the 2021 U.S. Championships. And despite having no spectators to cheer them on, the nation’s best put on a show for the world. Leading the way was Nathan Chen, who was not only in the hunt for a fifth straight U.S. title in Las Vegas, he was also chasing a piece of American figure skating history. Dick Button, the last man to capture five consecutive national crowns, achieved the feat in 1950 – some 71 years ago. Chen skated conservatively in his Latin-themed short program, opting for two quads —…

What is your background and how did you get into figure skating? I come from Avignon in the south of France, where skating is not popular. I went to the rink to see my cousin who took skating lessons and I wanted to try it right away. I loved it. I was able to skate naturally and my cousin was not happy because she had been doing it for some months and I was able to glide from the first class. I did singles skating from 6 to 9 years old. I had all the double jumps and I had started working on triples. But, at school, I heard lots of comments like ‘skating is a sport for girls.’ So I stopped skating and started playing rugby. But later, I…

The Japanese star has won everything there is to win — including back-to-back Olympic crowns — so what, you might ask, drives Hanyu to continue competing? When the COVID-19 pandemic became a reality in North America in mid-March and the 2020 World Champion-ships were cancelled, Yuzuru Hanyu returned to his Japanese homeland. As an asthmatic, he knew he would be at high risk if he caught the virus. In the months following his departure from Canada, there had been no information or updates about what he was doing, whether he was training, or if he intended to continue competing. The first news came just a week before the national championships in late December, when the line-ups were announced and Hanyu’s name was on the men’s roster. Though he chose not…

Time differences across many parts of the world, proved to be no barrier for the many thousands of fans that tuned in to watch the 2020 All Japan Championships play out at the Big Hat Arena in Nagano. With only 2,300 spectators in attendance — who were asked to refrain from cheering and throwing anything onto the ice — it was a much quieter affair than usual. Though we had seen a number of Japanese skaters compete at NHK Trophy in late November, this was the first outing of the season for three of the nation’s top stars: Rika Kihira, Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno. POWER AND GLORY Despite having no competitions since February 2020, Rika Kihira left no doubt she is still the leading lady in Japan. The 18-year-old…

▶ NEXT GEN Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, the 2014 Olympic pairs champions, are getting set to welcome a second child in late May or early June. The couple announced they are expecting a boy. Their daughter, Angelica, is 4. Keegan Messing and his wife Lane shared the news that they are expecting their first child on or about July 4, 2021. “We have something in the oven and it isn’t a bun,” Messing wrote in an Instagram post. Finland’s Valtter Virtanen, 33, and his wife, former German competitor Alina Mayer, 34, welcomed their first child, a baby girl on Jan. 5. Virtanen, a five-time national champion, balances his skating career with his real life job as a doctor Anna Pogorilaya, 22, the 2016 World bronze medalist from Russia and…

NEW INDUCTEE Johnny Weir is headed to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. The 2001 World junior champion, who won three consecutive U.S. titles (2004-2006), bronze at the 2008 World Championships and competed at two Olympic Winter Games, said the nomination was an honor. Following his retirement in October 2013, Weir signed on as an analyst with the NBC network. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the induction ceremony was postponed. His induction will take place at the U.S. Championships in Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2022. CREATIVE DESIGNS Daisuke Takahashi has been as busy off the ice as he has been on it. Since 2018, the 34-year-old from Japan has been working as an interior designer for Sky Court Co. Ltd., a Japanese real estate company, in his spare time.…