Soft Ice, Tough Competition, New Teams, and An Evening on Ice—Skating’s Week in Review

If you read Lynn Rutherford’s Indy Challenge article at IceNetwork.com this past week, you may have wondered how any pair was able to land anything with 96-degree (100 + heat index) weather pushing up against the outer wall of the arena, creating “very soft” ice conditions. Well… I couldn’t say, as I was down in the lower level of the complex for all six hours of my time there. But big props to the top pairs of the senior free skate event for succeeding in adverse conditions: Caydee Denney and John Coughlin (1st), Paige Lawrence and Rudy Swiegers (2nd), and Tiffany Vise/Don Baldwin (3rd). And Paige Lawrence… I think you’re the one who kept coming up to my table to get chocolates. Obviously we have more in common than our last name :-)

Meanwhile, Lake Placid was the place to be last weekend for ice dancing… and if you read THAT IceNetwork.com article, you already know the early-season fate of teams such as Isabella Cannuscio/Ian Lorello, Charlotte Lichtman/Dean Copely, and the new pair-up of Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donahue.

But there were at least two new North American dance teams that weren’t quite ready for competition… Madison Chock/Evan Bates, who joined forces earlier this summer (and talk about their new alliance via this Skype interview with Universal Sports…

And the even newer pairing of Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier, who will represent Canada internationally in 2012, according to articles such as this one. Poirier, of course, used to skate with Vanessa Crone, while Gilles was formerly paired with Zach Donahue (now of Hubbell/Donahue).

On a completely different note… and this time discussing a still-to-come event rather than a happened-last-week one… please check out this lovely post from a few weeks ago over at Life on the Edge (written by Allison Scott, Jeremy Abbott’s mother). It will tell you a bit about An Evening on Ice, a fundraiser happening Friday, August 12 in Burbank, CA for the U.S. Athletic Foundation… as well as its co-organizer, Nicholas La Roche. If you’re in the L.A. area next weekend, I hope you’ll try to attend!