The Button Feud, The Pairs-Go-Round, and Where to Watch 2012 Worlds (Online, at Least)

So let’s get a few needs-to-know for 2012 Worlds out of the way:

Here’s the streaming schedule at IceNetwork.com (all times Eastern):

Wednesday, March 28
8:00 a.m. - Pairs short program
1:40 p.m. - Short dance

Thursday, March 29
7:30 a.m. - Ladies short program
2:00 p.m. - Free dance

Friday, March 30
7:30 a.m. - Men's short program
2:30 p.m. - Pairs free skate

Saturday, March 31
7:55 a.m. - Men's free skate
1:30 p.m. - Ladies free skate

And the Universal Sports Network schedule is a little more complex than it used to be, so I’m just going to link to it here. BUT, can you do me a favor and post a comment if

a) you USED to watch Worlds on USN but no longer get the network on your particular system, or especially if…

b) you are CURRENTLY able to get USN.

I’m just curious. Oh, and I’m also increasingly curious/interested in officially joining Twitter Nation—I’ve posted skater Tweets here from time to time, but still no account of my own. I’m thinking of joining in time for Worlds. I believe the official hashtag for Worlds on Twitter, by the way, is #Nice12… will YOU be following?

Oh, and a couple more things worth mentioning…

+ An instantly fascinating “war of words” has erupted in recent weeks between Legend-in-Too-Many-Ways-to-Count Dick Button, and U.S. Figure Skating, and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame (from which Button deliberately abstained casting a ballot this year). With both sides of the debate proving rather loquacious (SURPRISE!!), I’m just going to post this Examiner article for now—if you want State of the Skate to post about it in detail, say, sometime after Worlds, let me know. At a (long) glance, though, this looks like the most dust Uncle Dickie has kicked up in The-Powers-That-Be’s collective face since he was part of the movement to establish the World Skating Federation back in 2003.

+ You may have heard that the pairs carousel has started spinning a little early this time around… more details will likely follow after Worlds, but if you want to go ahead and get your scorecard reset for the post-2012 season right now, here’s what I’ve got:

+ Joshua Reagan and Ashley Cain, U.S. Junior Nats champs from last year and 6th place finishers at Senior Nats this year, split a few weeks ago.

+ Reagan officially joined forces (a.k.a. started a pairs partnership) with Caitlin Yankowskas this week… which is great news, especially since former national champ Yankowskas has been un-paired ever since John Coughlin left her for another National pairs champ (Caydee Denney)… with whom he is now the current National pairs champ. (Got all that??)

+ Kiri Baga—who finished 10th this year at U.S. Senior Nats—now plans to add “Senior pairs” to her repertoire, as she officially paired up with Taylor Toth this week. Toth previously skated pairs (and was 2010 U.S. Junior Nats champs) with Felicia Zhang.

+ And one more, this time from across the pond… Lubov Iliushechkina and Nodari Maisuradze have split as well. Their highest achievements include winning bronze at 2009 Russian Nationals, and gold at 2009 Junior Worlds. They’re the ones that used A Chorus Line for their free skate this past GP season.


With any luck, Worlds medal predictions will post from Sunday through Wednesday. Be sure to come back, so you can gather evidence to throw back at me when they prove to be dead wrong!