Coming Very Soon: JGP in Latvia, and "Battle of the Blades" (with a twist)

The end of August I looked forward to in my younger days for two reasons: 1) School was starting/about to start, and 2) The 30th is my birthday. Nowadays, the school significance is passed down to my kids… and while my birthday still happens at the same time, it’s not quite the thrill it used to be… if you know what I mean :-)

But by way of my deeper immersion into this sport (if writing the blog and writing Skating on Air count), I now pay more attention to the span between late August and mid October—elite figure skating’s pre-season, if you will. Which provides something new to look forward to! (Plus, the homework’s a lot better.)

By this time a month from now, five international skating events—four junior, one senior—will have taken place:

JGP Volvo Cup (Riga, Latvia)… August 31-September 4

JGP Brisbane (Brisbane, Australia)… September 7- 11

JGP Baltic Cup (Gdansk, Poland)… September 14-18

Nebelhorn Trophy (Germany)… September 21-24

JGP Brasov Cup (Brasov, Roumania?)… September 21-25


And as you see, JGP Volvo Cup gets started later this week… so the time to get focused is almost upon us already! I’ll post at least one follow-up on this one by this time next week.

You know what else it’s almost time for? That’s correct… season three of the CBC hit series Battle of the Blades. September 18, to be precise! So glad that Canada continues to succeed where the U.S. seems destined to fail.

Speaking of which, did you hear that Tanith Belbin will be in this year’s lineup of pros? Maybe her boot camp at Skating with the Stars wasn’t all for naught. (She’ll probably prefer skating to co-hosting, anyway.) Other new pros include Kim Navarro (ice dancer formerly paired w/Brent Bommentre), Elena Berezhnaya (2002 OGM w/pairs partner Anton Sikharulidze), Marcy Hinzmann-Harris (2006 Olympian pairs skater, formerly paired w/Aaron Parchem), and… David Pelletier? Yup, he’s paired with another Olympic Gold Medalist… in women’s hockey. Tessa Bonhomme is her name. Much more about the cast can be found at the CBC’s official website for it.

Canadian readers, are you ready for another season of BATTLES?