All the Skating News Fit For One Post

Stars on Ice, Toes needing ice, Russian pairs shake-up, and a New skating resource-- they're all part of the skating news of this past week...

Smucker’s Stars on Ice 2010 is underway. Less than a week after Worlds’ conclusion, the greatest (and only) show of its kind on U.S. ice kicked off its spring tour in Florida on April 1… and will wind along the east coast most of this month, hit the Midwest through mid-May, and spend the last 10 days on the west side of the country. The cast changes from town to town, but the “master list” includes champs from the ‘90s (Eldredge, Sato), the first half of the ‘00s (Weiss, Cohen), and of course several more current “stars”, including 5 medalists from Vancouver (Shen/Zhao, Pang/Tong, Rochette, Davis/White, and Lysacek on non-Dancing dates). Will you be going? Find out more about the tour here.

Lysacek’s now dancing broken-toe-to-broken-toe. Speaking of the current hardest working skater in show business, he’s already working at a disadvantage. Word got out this week (first via his own Tweets, and then through mentions like this) that the reigning OGM now suffers from not one, but two broken toes… which has got to feel freaking FANTASTIC when he spends the bulk of his time either in skates or learning the quick-step. How long will he be able to continue at this pace? Guess we should start by seeing how he does on his third round of DWTS tomorrow night.


Muk/Trank is now just Muk again. They said it couldn’t last, and, in fact, Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov (of Russia) might have sustained their stormy pairs relationship a lot longer than expected. But as of this week, Trankov has gone his own way… and Mukhortova (as well as coach Oleg Vasiliev) is on the lookout for a few partner. The couple finished 4th at Worlds and 7th in Vancouver…

And I was about to add that he might consider Tatiana Volosozhar, as her partner Stanislav Morozov recently retired… but it appears it’s already happened. According to Volosozhar’s Wikipedia listing (with a Russian newspaper listed as the source):

In March 2010, Morozov retired from competitive skating. Volosozhar moved to Moscow to train with Maxim Trankov with a view to representing Russia. Nina Mozer became the new pair's coach with Morozov as assistant coach.

So… how does “Volo/Trank” grab you?? Guess they’d been planning that one for a while. I’ll definitely look to see what the new team can accomplish by the fall… and as for Ms. Mukhortova, I hope she can find someone to suit her needs. No small task, given what must surely be a stormy reputation by now.


My Skating Mall is good to go. And finally, former US men’s competitor (and 2003 World Team member) Ryan Jahnke wrote me again to let me know his latest endeavor, the place for “gently used” skater’s gear known as myskatingmall.com, officially “opened for business” late last month (sorry it took me an extra week to get it posted, Ryan!) He also asked me to remind you that 5% to 90% of every purchase raises money for the skating club or team of the buyer and seller. Skating groups can benefit from every purchase and sale their members make… so go check it out.

For the Clip of the day I’ve got Muk/Trank’s gold medal-winning free skate at 2009 Trophee Eric Bompard. It was their only significant international victory as senior pair skaters, and it really had me thinking they might have an exceptional Olympic season… but as we now know, it was not to be. So long, you two. I’ll miss saying “Muk/Trank”, it had such a nice ring to it…