No Figure Skating in Sochi

... anymore.

It's not a Paralympic sport. But I went and googled "paralympic" and "figure skating" and got this.



Inclusive Skating

They are hoping to become a part of the Paralympics in Pyeong Chang, South Korea in 2018.

I found this paragraph in the Global Project for Inclusive Skating tab to be of interest:

However, with the introduction and development of the new International Judging System (IJS) by the International Skating Union (ISU), the door has been opened for a radically new way to approach the sport of ice skating for challenged athletes. The IJS, for the first time, allows athletes to be evaluated on an “absolute” mark, something which can then be realistically adjusted by an internationally agreed impairment compensation reflecting the athlete’s specific disability. This impairment compensation is based on an internationally accepted system known as the Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, edited by Rondinelli and devised by the American Medical Association, that converts impairments to a % whole person impairment (WPI).

Well, maybe that at least one good thing to come out of the new judging system.

Let's keep an eye out for them. The more people involved in skating, the better. Don't you think?

Something Funny In The Judging

I originally posted this in May, but it felt right to bring it up again.

Yes, the Sochi Olympics don't start for 262 days are here!. I thought this was funny enough to mention now then. And I don't mean funny - haha, I mean funny - hmmmm.



When I was looking up the names of the adorable (freaky-evil if you ask me) mascots for the Sochi Olympics, I learned on Wikipedia that these furry little critters don't have names AND they were surrounded in a controversy of suspicious judging.


Wait a minute, Ice Charades, are you suggesting that there was something funny in the judging? In the Olympics?

Why, yes, yes I am. It's funny - hmmm.



You can read the wikipedia entry for the Sochi Olympic Mascots here. Then scroll down to the Controversy section to read this:

Despite the success of the mascot selection process, some accusations have been brought against the mascots. The possibility of telephone vote rigging was brought up when the mascot that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had said was his favorite, the snow leopard, polled the most votes in the voting process after a sharp climb in the number of votes.

... a sharp climb in the number of votes.

Well, let's just be glad that they haven't opened up the figure skating competition in Sochi to telephone voting.

Four Years Ago

... it was all Evan and Evgani, but to me, it was Johnny Weir who stole the show. Others thought so too. Remember the Facebook page - Johnny Weir was ROBBED! -?



He was fabulous!

Last night, for me it was Jeremy Abbott who made the night. Other skaters were fabulous, to be sure, but he showed us "the show must go on." If you haven't already, please go to Skate Guard for a recap of last night.



Here's to an exciting night of the Men's Free. Here's the lineup.

Olympic Question of the Day

There was a radio station in Washington DC that I would listen to and one day the DJ asked if you were forced to do one thing which would it be?

Giant Slalom down the mountain

Luge or Skeleton by yourself

Skijumping

Now I'm tweaking it and asking if you could master one skating move what would it be?

a quad toe loop

the most amazing scratch spin ever

double back flip on ice

So you tell me!

The Road to Sochi

I'm going to give you a few nuts-n-bolts links for Sochi.

Starting with the main site for Sochi 2014 Olympics.

For those that love their wikipedia, here's Sochi's.

As for dates: mark your calendar for Friday, February 7th for the Opening Ceremonies. But there is competition starting the day before including men's and pair's short program - TEAM Event.

Here's one handy tv schedule from the Guardian explaining the beginning days of competition. If you want to look at only skating schedules, here's one place to go.

If you're worried that they'll be problems at this Olympics, due to lack of snow, terrorism, pesky gay propoganda, go here, where Putin promises "no problems."

I will also be reposting some past Olympic blog items to get you in the Olympic spirit.

Starting with the Olympic Challenge from March, 2010 ...



So I went to the bulletin board to check out next week's schedule and saw the March calendar had a quiz at the bottom. Can you compete with the Lomas Verdes Skating Club challenge? Here you go ...

The Skaters:

Katarina Witt

Shizuka Arakawa

Jeanette Altweg

Katarina Witt

Teley Albright

Sonja Henjie

Dorothy Hamill

Kristi Yamaguchi

Barbara Ann Scott

Peggy Fleming

The Year That They Won:

1928

1988

1956

1984

1952

2006

1948

1968

1992

1976


I bet a lot of you readers out there don't even need the years listed, but I must say without process of elimination, I wouldn't be able to tell you what year Jeanette Altweg won. Good Luck!

Is Everyone Excited for Sochi?

Time to get back to posting ... it's my 400th by the way.

So much going on with the upcoming Olympics in general and figure skating in particular ... so I'm going to jump right in.

I've got to say, I didn't expect a major sponsor of the Games to be so bold.

Cheers to Coca-Cola!




Check out the ad here.

10 of the World's Most Beautiful Ice Skating Rinks

This CNN article was posted among some of my Facebook friends listing 10 of the world's most beautiful ice rinks around the world.

Here's the quick rundown of their favorites -

Banff Lake Louise, Banff, Canada


Bondi Winter Festival Ice Rink, Sydney


Eiffel Tower Ice Rink, Paris


Evergreen Lake, Colorado


Red Square Rink, Moscow


Rideau Canal Skateway, Ottawa


Rockefeller Center, New York


Shichahai Lake, Beijing


Somerset House, London


Vienna Ice Dream, Vienna, Austria

But I think they have left out a few ...

Let's not forget the world's biggest ice rink in one of my favorite cities - Mexico City.



Maybe you would like to skate near a roller coaster or ferris wheel? Then Fuji-Q Highland Park in Japan is for you.



Or in the Netherlands there is this beauty ... a little hard to do your program, but great for stroking!



But I've got to say one of the most interesting to me is an ice rink in the Munich Airport. Yes, how many airports have an ice rink? Pretty cool if you have a looooong layover.



Are there any others I'm missing out on?