A World of Skating Pain... and Gain (As in weight gain. The good kind. Seriously!)

Time for a little round-up of, shall we say, “medical or otherwise life-altering” news happenings that have surfaced since Worlds ended a few weeks ago…

-- Got to start with the newest news: Isabelle Delobel, of the former world champion ice dance team Delobel & Schoenfelder, has a pain dans le four (rough translation of the English slang “Bun in the oven”). According to this and several wire reports, she is expecting and due in September. French skier Ludovic Roux is the proud pere-to-be; they plan to marry next year. From the article at icenetwork.com:

Delobel's pregnancy has not discouraged her Olympic dreams. On the contrary, she said, "However unexpected the news came, I can assure you that I never thought this would force me to stop skating," she said. "You know, those pregnant woman's wishes ... They are just like the will for a special victory," she offered in a smile.

I must say, when I indicated earlier this month that D & S could probably bounce back into things relatively quickly next season, I didn’t consider THIS possibility! It will indeed be interesting to see how this affects their final Olympic bid, though perhaps not as interesting as it would be if the baby was due in… say…December.

-- Skating While Injured, part 1: World Champ Evan Lysacek knew (but the public didn’t) at the time of Worlds, he was competing while contending with a stress fracture in his left foot. But former World Silver Medalist Fumie Suguri did NOT know she was competing while contending with a fractured rib… the ninth rib, to be more specific. Yeow! You can read a little more here about her plans for recovery (which don’t seem long enough, but I’ve never dealt with a cracked rib so what do I know…).

-- Skating While Injured, part 2: Rockne Brubaker, one-half of the current US Pairs Champion team McLaughlin and Brubaker (or McBru as they’re often called here), competed the entire season with two “sports hernias”, and skipped the ISU World Team Trophy so that he could get right on the necessary surgery to repair them. From the icenetwork article:

"The injury was not severe but bothersome to Rockne's performance," said Dr. John Reasoner, the medical director of performance services at the United States Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., who treated Brubaker throughout his injury.

Ya THINK? I really haven’t dealt with (nor am I likely to deal with ) one hernia in my lifetime, let alone two at the same time… so again, what do I know… but I’m going to wince every time I watch a playback from this season showing Brubaker executing a lift. Egads!

Speaking of which, let’s wince right now… just kidding. The Clip of the Day showcases McBru back at the Nationals Gala from January. It appears to be grimace-free :-)