Two time former National Champion Jeremy Abbot who lost the title in 2011 to Ryan Bradley, when he placed fourth, is raring to go as the 2012 National Championships approach.  "I’m really excited for the upcoming championships," he said.  " I think that San Jose is going to be a fantastic venue. I’m feeling really confident and I’m just excited for this to all get going."

Abbott has two new programs this year, a swing medley for the Short Program and "Exogenesis Symphony" by Muse for the Free Skate, and he is enthusiastic about both of them.

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Today’s telecon with Mirai Nagasu was a wild ride as she spoke to the media by cell phone while her mom drove her through the southern California desert. The connection dropped out twice and the sound was iffy at times, but the teenager from Arcadia, California, who won the 2008 ladies title, put a unique spin on just about every question.  Her opening thoughts on preparing for Nationals since the Grand Prix started in a place no one would have guessed.

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Alissa Czisny, the reigning U.S. National Champion is back on track to compete for the 2012 U.S. title after an injury hampered performance at the Grand Prix Final in Canada last month. Czisny injured her foot at the competition practicing triple flips but decided to compete regardless and had her poorest showing of the season. Since then she has put the injury behind her, and has her sights on defending her U.S. title.

"I’m excited heading into the national championships," she said. "Obviously the final wasn’t my best and I had the injury. I took a week off and then slowly got back into training to make sure I didn’t make the injury any worse. It’s much better now, it’s healed and training is going really well."

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Skate America and Skate Canada on Track for Zero Spectators by 2015

To the handful of spectators at the recent Skate America competition in Ontario, CA it was painfully obvious.  Spectator attendance was sparse, extremely sparse.  Walking around the concourse and seeing so may familiar faces it seemed the attendance was mainly driven by the local skating community: skaters, parents, coaches, officials, and the occasional skating groupie.  In a huge market like southern California, how could public interest be so low?  The following weekend in Mississauga, ON attendance was much better, as it typically is at Skate Canada, but even there attendance was not what we remember from recent years, and certainly not from the glory years in the 1990s.

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Two-time National Silver Medallists Amanda Evora & Mark Ladwig have their sights set on the U.S. National title, after their best season start, with two fourth place finishes in the Grand Prix, one at Cup of China at the other at Trophee Eric Bompard.  The 2012 National Figure Skating Championships will be their tenth appearance together in the Senior category.

"I thought the Grand Prix series was a great debut for two new programs and new costumes and I thought it got out a lot of elements and we saw some positive feedback and saw growth in our training and are looking forward here heading to San Jose," said Mark.

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Today (28 Dec. 2011) the ISU released a statement that the calculation program used this season up through the Grad Prix Final contained a calculation error that caused Virtue & Moir to place second in the Free Dance instead of first.  Davis & Whites margin of victory should have been 0.5 points lower, but this adjustment (luckily for the ISU) would not change the final overall result.

This error is also present in the software used at qualifying competitions in the U.S. this season and affects the scoring in those competitions.  This error can be up to +/- 0.5 points for any couple with a combination lift.

The ISU statement said:

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Patrick Chan's first place result in his Grand Prix Final short program, after a spectacular fall on the required jump combination, has again brought to the fore the question of whether IJS rewards failure by allowing too many points on an element (particularly a jump) with a fall.  This has been the subject of debate since the inception of IJS with critics saying IJS has made the penalty for a fall just a slap on the wrist compared to the 6.0 system, while the IJS gods proclaim that harsher penalties would stifle the skaters' motivation to attempt the difficult triple and quadruple jumps.

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The Grand Prix Final was held in Québec City from December 8 to 10, 2011.  As expected, it was really a fantastic and very exciting event, the best I can remember in many years.

The Grand Prix Final this year was particularly interesting because it included both the junior and senior finals, thus giving the opportunity to the junior skaters to perform with the top world skaters and to the audience and the spectators to watch the present champions as well as those of the future. And, from what we have seen, there are some really promising stars on the horizon.

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In a very good interview published in the Italian figure skating magazine "Doppio Axel" at the beginning of November, Stephane Lambiel expresses his opinion on the International Judging System (IJS), giving an interesting suggestion on how, perhaps, it could be improved.

According to Stephane, figure skating has lost its appeal because "the present rules penalize those skaters who, although having a strong personality, do not have the difficult jumps, to the advantage of skaters without charisma but with jumps, which, as it is well known, are used to get points". Stephane wishes that things may change in the future "because the public wants to see something magic, and we need this in our sport".

Stephane is not the only great champion who has expressed doubt in the IJS.

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